DOG POO BAGS BY PETER VEENSTRA (LOLA LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE)

A collection of Dog Poo Bags collected from cities all over Europe, by landscape architect Peter Veenstra (Lola Landscape, Rotterdam). They are distributed free of charge in parks and on streets for citizens to use to keep the streets and parks clean. This relatively recent addition to the accessories of modern urban living evoke many associations. For example, the loneliness of urban denizens taking solace in their pets. Or the delegation of keeping the city clean to the citizens themselves. The way they are imprinted with graphics and the way the modern citizen is spoken to in a bureaucratic or a playfully humorous manner. There are also examples in which a manual format is used. Interestingly, the Dog Poo Bag is distributed in a limited number of countries, and then mainly in the densely inhabited, touristic inner cities. In some countries, like The Netherlands, dog owners are obligated to carry their own poo bags while outside and can be asked by law enforcement officers to present them. Something in the Dutch mentality is not conducive to the voluntary cleaning up of one’s shit. The Dog Poo Bag in other words is a Rorschach test for a culture’s attitude to civic responsibilities in public space. (On show from October 2018 – February 2019)