We Make Carpets: Ribbon Pavilion

As part of Rice Public Art’s Platform series, inviting contemporary artists to respond to art, architecture, and research at Rice University through temporary, site-specific installations, the Dutch collective We Make Carpets will intervene in an open-air temporary structure adjacent to Baker Hall.

Based on the 19th century American tradition of a barn raising, a collective action in which the community comes together to build a barn for one of its members. The artists, from their studio in the Netherlands, provided a set of instructions for an installation to be realized by Houston-based volunteers. Given travel restrictions due to COVID-19, this innovative collaboration transcends international borders, bringing people together around a shared creative cause.

Marcia Nolte, Stijn van der Vleuten, and Bob Waardenburg, the artists of We Make Carpets, first exhibited in the U.S. in 2018 when invited by the Moody Center for the Arts to create a site-specific installation titled Crêpe Paper Carpet. According to the artists, “We are delighted to continue our collaboration with Rice University, and are inspired by the open-ended, collaborative nature of the Rice and Houston communities.”

This installation is made possible by the Creative Industries Fund, NL and the Moody Center for the Arts. Video by Walley Films.