City of Dreams

The world is changing at lightning speed. We build, renew, and keep dreaming. Cities are evolving into living organisms of concrete, glass, and green. Everything around us once began as an idea, a sketch on paper, a thought in someone’s mind. Big plans are often made by adult experts: architects, designers, engineers. They draw the lines of the future.

But what if children stepped into the shoes of these master builders? What would the world look like through the eyes of the youngest? Would we picnic beneath cotton candy trees and travel on flying carpets? Perhaps homes would look like something out of Minecraft, and highways would be replaced by skate lanes.

In Hugo Vrijdag’s light artwork Droomstad (Dream City), that is exactly what happens. Thousands of children from all over the world become the builders of tomorrow. With pencil, paint or marker, they give shape to their dream house — and with it, their ideal city. Perhaps soon we’ll float in a hot air balloon between rainbow-colored towers, or every wall will be covered in flowers. Maybe the houses of the future will no longer stand still on the ground but move up and down to a new rhythm. It’s a city that has never existed before.

Dream City shows that the imagination of children is boundless and so very precious. In schools, care centers, and at kitchen tables at home, a world is being built where anything is possible. Every child takes part; every design counts and is valid — after all, a dream can never be wrong. During GLOW, this city comes to life. For eight evenings, visitors will wander through Dream City, a city of light, color and hope. And it’s not just at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven that this world of children’s dreams takes pride of place. In Best, Oirschot, Helmond and Veldhoven too, these dream worlds can be found, inviting visitors to walk through countless neighborhoods filled with ideas and wishes.