Laura Snijders

jury statement

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The Netherlands /// Niederlande
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DESET! was originally a game developed by the artist Laura Snijders – a game designed to challenge, observe, accompany, question and document how people interact when there’s no corset of guidelines or rules. The card game SET, which was developed in 1974 and is based on colourful abstract shapes, initially served as the starting point for Snijders’ experiment. Her artistic exploration of play had previously featured in an exhibition at art centre Stroom Den Haag in 2021. Apart from the visual nature of the cards, no rules were given to the interacting players (i.e. the visitors to the exhibition); instead they were asked to “de-set”, in other words, to spontaneously define their own rules or to simply improvise. In this way, each new player created a new game.

In 2024, a selection of these freely developed game sequences based on visitors’ imaginations and intrinsic social interactions, as observed by the artist herself, were turned into a fun, vibrant, manual-like booklet. Even unpacking and holding its sleeve and cover is a pleasure, encouraging you to delve into its various layers. The exceptional printing quality, the chosen materials and the radiance of shades and shapes inspire the reader to explore the interior. Echoing the overlapping colourful elements that define the book’s identity, the transparent pages are an ingenious design choice. The attention to
detail makes the project both visually appealing and a faithful reflection of the game’s playful nature. The contemporary typographic concept, meanwhile, perfectly frames the basic premise – to create a visual study of rules, how we set them and how we can forgo them.