‘Whoever reads this,
you’re hereby invited to join us with
..(in this case dinner)..
We’ll pick you up at seven o’clock
in front of the Paleistuinen.
Bring something’

Imagine, you're on the tram, you want to scan your OV-card and suddenly you see a small note. You pick up the note and read the following text (see above). What would you do? This project was a collaboration with artist/friends Janne Schipper and Gideon Oosten. Together we came up with this idea to get in touch with strangers in a creative way. We hoped to gain spontaneous, surprising and new experiences in this way.
   In order to spread the text as easily as possible, we made the text in the form of a stamp. After we had cut out small paper notes for an hour we labeled them with the stamps. And from that moment on we where able to spread them around in The Hague. This project was carried out on the 20th of May, 2016.
   As we announce on the note, Janne Schipper and I waited in front of the Palace Gardens in The Hague at the time described on the note. Unfortunately Gideon Oosten could not be there because of a work appointment. Every time when someone entered the Palace Gardens me and Janne would hold in our breaths; would he / she found our note? Time passed slowly, around half past eight we noticed the presence of two boys. We saw that one of the boys picked up a small folded note out of his pocket. They found our note! Janne and I rushed towards them to meet them. We introduced ourselves to two Irish boys. Both working and living in The Hague. We invited them to the Molenstraat where both me and Janne live. At our home we offered them the promised dinner. The exciting part was the fact that we did not know how many people had found our note, and actually would show up.

As it is described on the note everybody is expected to take something with him/her. And as real Irish guys, they took a big amount of alcohol. The soup was hot, the bread was cutted and the cans of beer were cold. It was a huge spontaneous fun evening that lasted up till four o'clock in the morning. We had a great time together with lots and lots of good conversations. Our experiment was without any doubt a big success. When the evening came to an end we said goodbye and left each other with a huge amount of good energy. We where very curious how they experienced this event and asked them to respond on it. We received the following e-mail from one of the boys a few days later:

So I was heading home on the tram, when I happened to pick up a neatly folded piece of paper. Now I am a curious man by nature and as curious people do, I opened it,(curiosity didn't kill the cat) to my delight written inside was an invitation with instructions.

So I was heading home on the tram, when I happened to pick up a neatly folded piece of paper. Now I am a curious man by nature and as curious people do, I opened it,(curiosity didn't kill the cat) to my delight written inside was an invitation with instructions. without a second thought, I am going to attend this meet. So myself and a colleague went to the meeting point*(well initially 50 meters away from the meeting point, don't judge we are new here haha) arriving 30 minute early we sat at a pond and chatted about what we were expecting from what type of people put these notes out there, are they going to be crazy axe murders, are we currently the focus of a snipers scopes, are we going to meet some of the coolest people ever????????

Thankfully, they were not crazy axe murders(well at least that night they weren't), if there was a sniper, he didn't pull the trigger, but we did have the opportunity of meeting the coolest people ever, well at least 2 of the 3 that set this night up, as the one who place the invitations out that, was unable to make it due to work reasons, so I extend my thanks to you although I didn't have the pleasure of meeting you.

So after 30 minutes of sitting in the wrong place, we were 5 minutes past the meeting time, so we thought lets take a look around, maybe we will find them......WE DID :) :)

So we exchanged pleasantries and headed back to their apartment were we ate food and drunk wine and beer together. We chatted and they told us all about there life as art student and the projects they are working on and past projects...At this point, I could not help but think these girls are the coolest people EVER and I really want to be an art student.

My personality is quiet and quite simple thous I am quite spiritual, so I absorb atmosphere created by others and the atmosphere created will live on in my memory for ever. I learnt a lot from the stories shared, we even met the neighbours who were also interesting and the stories they shared we entertaining also(hahahaha).

After many hours of talking and drinking and talking and drinking and talking and drinking.......... It was time to leave :( but it was 4.30am hahaha. These girls can party.

I would like to thank all 3 of you from the bottom of my heart for this experience it was a beautiful thing to do. Never stop with your creative minds and kind ways, the world need more people like you in it to make it a better place.

I also want to invite you to Jorplace Beach Hostel on 25th June as my friend is preforming there, I think you will enjoy his music and I told him all about the evening we shared and he was amazed by it also.

Keep Being You.

Next