Promoting your country by giving it away? The Dutch don’t think that’s a two-faced idea. Their Ministry of Foreign Affairs is handing out the ownership of thousand of pieces of property as gifts to their most valued worldwide contacts. Together, all the pieces form a one-hundred-metre-long public bench located in Amsterdam.

The exclusive business gift is a clever way to return the external affairs budget to the local community. Even more captivating is how the gift actually intensifies the relationship between originating country and the receiver, be they in Brazil, Ivory Coast or Cyprus. It’s no crystal tulip to display on your desk. Upon receipt of this gift, you become a landowner with all the associated opportunities and responsibilities. Such ownership stimulates your interest in the country surrounding your plot.

By designing a bench, Claudia Linders also managed to facilitate a global community. One thousand spaces make one collective place on www.spacetotakeplace.nl. While locals take place in the public domain, owners abroad take their places by using a second public domain, the worldwide web. Using the internet, they can view moments and meetings that take place around and on their bench, as documented by the locals and visitors who upload their photographs and videos.

Space To Take Place is commissioned by:  DROOG design

Via: Artichoke magazine