An attendant from Van Abbemuseum holding the trophy in one of the exhibition rooms with
‘Kid Oliveira (Boxer)’ by Wim van de Plas and ‘Schilder met zijn vrouw’ by Carel Willink on the background.
The BEST GUEST CHALLENGE is turning the world of the critical visitor upside down. Instead of evaluating the cultural activity they are visiting, the visitor themselves becomes object of critical inspection in a playful way. Who will be the BEST GUEST? We developed this concept in different art contexts.
During the Playful Arts Meetup #3 at Theaterfestival Boulevard in ‘s-Hertogenbosch we did a try-out of the BEST GUEST CHALLENGE. With a small group of visitors we experimented with the concept and they gave us some feedback. Finally, Duende won the challenge!
The biggest BEST GUEST CHALLENGE took place during the YOUNG ART NIGHT in Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven.
All the visitors got a badge with a number at the entrance. We explained it was for the BEST GUEST CHALLENGE and that they could nominate another visitor by putting a green sticker on their clothing. A small visual instruction was handed out and posters to remind them about the challenge hung in the museum spaces. The winner would go home with this crazy trophy!
During the whole evening we saw people judging each other. And when the badges were all handed out, we went on to sabotage the game, by giving more stickers to people. Clearly, this sparked a competitive vibe in the museum.
At midnight the award ceremony took place. During this talk we let the other visitors give their vote to one of the four last nominees. The EXTRA SPECIAL GUEST JUDGES counted the stickers (although we don’t know how honest they were) and Paul turned out to be the best guest of the evening!
Congrats Paul for being the best guest! It was a great competition, everybody judged everybody… And in addition, we saw some flirting going on and traded stickers with chewing gum. It got awkward often and we love that.