House of Cards - amsterdam light festival

House of Cards is an installation made for the Amsterdam Light Festival. It consists of 125 light boxes in the form of playing cards that in turn (or all at once) appear according to a preconfigured choreography. The structure has several levels; it looks like a modern church from one side and from the other, a classical structure of building blocks.

The idea stemmed from childhood memories and the artists’ games with their children. Playing cards were once tremendously popular across the globe with all different cultures. In the Netherlands, one can still find the creations of the Speelkaartenfabriek “Nederland” (NSF), or ‘Playing Cards Factory Netherlands’, a famous printing house located on Amsterdam’s Prinseneiland. As homage to this culture and history, the House of Cards installation is placed close to this historical location.

Every card of House of Cards has a different design. OGE’s Gaston and Merav invited 40 friends and internationally acclaimed street and visual artists from all over the world; people who have a special relationship with the city and regard its walls and streets as a canvas upon which to present their work. The result is a stunning new deck of cards that makes its premiere in Amsterdam. My piece, “King of Print”