Carlijn Kingma

Although she felt very attracted to the architectural practice, Kingma chose to be an architect in an alternative way. Behind her drawing table, she creates worlds in order to understand the world around us: drawings that reflect on the complex structures of our societies. The works are always the result of extensive collaborations. The drawings and stories map the social, political and power structures around us, readable through the metaphorical language of architecture. The worlds become alternative maps to navigate our society.

Her latest project, The Waterworks of Money (read more on Kingma’s website here), delves into the intricate workings of the money system by representing money as water and thereby our financial system as an irrigation system, watering the economy. It will be on display at the Depot Boijmans van Beuningen from May 17, 2024 till the end of November during the exhibition Let’s Talk Money. The exhibition centers around this project, which was researched in collaboration with investigative journalist Thomas Bollen and researcher Martijn Jeroen van der Linden, and was largely part of her residency at Rabobank. The exhibition also features works by other artist’s, such as Constant’s Spatiovore [III]. 

Constant was the topic for both the final project of her bachelor’s degree and her master’s degree. For her bacherlor’s thesis, Kingma wrote about the life and work of Constant and for her master’s production, she created an interpretation of Constant’s New Babylon.

The drawings and stories map the social, political and power structures around us, readable through the metaphorical language of architecture. The worlds become alternative maps to navigate our society. It led her to, in 2017, become the first winner of the New Babylon Award, awarded by Kunstmuseum Den Haag and Chair of History of Architecture and Urban Planning at TU Delft’s Faculty of Architecture. The prize was an exhibition based on her graduation project at the Kunstmuseum.

About her project jury chairman and museum director Benno Tempel said:

“Like Constant Nieuwenhuys or the artists of De Stijl, Kingma seeks to balance architectural design and visual art. In her work, she creates new worlds in which the current distinctions between art and life fade away. This places her in the tradition of radical thinkers, many of whom are represented in the collection of the Gemeentemuseum [Kunstmuseum] Den Haag.”