Four&Sons

Dutch courage

BY Four, January 16, 2012

We are pretty jealous of the citizens of Eindhoven, Holland. Without warning their city was filled with giant balloon animals after La Bolleur, a multidisciplinary design studio with a knack for the unexpected, was commissioned to come up with an installation for the whole city to enjoy.

In a world where often we take things too seriously and fear being labeled ‘uncool’ for having fun, the team from La Bolleur created a group of playful and incredibly seductive upscaled balloons. We chat with the collective about this project and some more.

Your work always looks like so much fun.
Is having fun your major consideration when you start a project?
We always say that we never forget to have fun. Any project we start should always be something that makes us happy and in the end makes others smile.

We love your Animal Balloons and seeing you guys wrestle with them. How did you manage to pull it off?
Luckily for us, our studio has eight young guys, who aren’t afraid to wrestle with big animals. Together we got them on a leash. As you can see on the photos we even needed some ladders to feed them.

Which materials were used to create the animals?
Did you have any help?  
The material used is a type of fabric they use for kytes. We asked a company specialised in inflatables to make us tubes in different sizes and colours.

What was the response from the citizens of Eindhoven?
Any stories to tell?
People didn’t know what to expect. They stopped, watched, took some pictures and even sat and jumped on the tubes that were not knotted to animals. We intended the whole project to be good fun for ourselves and the audience. A lot of them walked away with a smile on their face.

You have already explored being a restaurant (by the way, what is your signature dish?) and an off-centre mini-golf, brewed your own beer, organised many parties and exhibitions… what is next for La Bolleur?
Our signature dish would be fish in clay. Baked in red hot charcoal and served as a brick on a wooden plate with a hammer as cutlery. This year La Bolleur strikes back. We are working on some projects that will make a big impact. Expect anything!

If you were not designers/artists, what would you do with yourselves?
One of us would be in space, one a coach in the NFL, one a millionaire/ playboy, one an inventor, one a computer specialist, one a tv-presenter, one a massage-therapist and the last (but not least) would walk on water.

Out of curiosity, what does La Bolleur mean? 
La Bolleur was actually the name of an old brothel in Eindhoven. The first owner was quite a fat man, that’s why the locals called him ‘de bolle’ (translates as ‘the fatty’). To make the place sound chic he gave it a french twist. When the brothel was no longer in function, we used the place to throw infamous parties. The building was demolished and we took of the old sign ‘La Bolleur’ , and started our own design studio under that same name.

And finally, do any of you guys own dogs?
None of us actually own a dog, but one of the guys’ nickname is ‘De Hond/Le Chien’ (dutch/french for dog) and another was actually chased by dogs in Tallinn, Estonia.

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All images courtesy of La Bolleur
To check more of the studio’s projects and installations,
visit La Bolleur’s site here

Tags Art, Community, Culture, Design, Event, Exhibition, Installation