We have joined forces yet again with artist duo Arno Coenen and Iris Roskam for another inspiring design based on our favourite Rotterdam building! We’d like to introduce the Markthal 2.0 shoe. We like to see this as art for everybody that you can wear on your feet, which features the Horn of Plenty design. This special edition is now available in our shop and online!

The Markthal was designed by the architect Winy Maas and has been opened since October 1, 2014. Inside the arched hall is a spectacular artwork from Arno Coenen that is 11.000 m2. The artwork is 115m by 95m and has a resolution of 400.000 megapixels; within the artwork there are images of the fresh vegetables, meat, fish, bread and flowers that can be bought in the building from various venders.

“Places where there is no art become extremely boring and depressing,” says Coenen. To help solve this problem, both Mascolori and the duo make art that is for the real world as well as for a real audience. These designs are outside the official closed world of museums and galleries rather they are right in the middle of society. “The almost ‘un-Dutchness’ of Mascolori’s shoes also characterises our work,” Roskam adds. “Everything is put on the table with this kind of work, from creativity to colour and form.”

Coenen (1972) works with differing types of media, from video art and 3D animation to glass windows and mosaic. His work in known both in The Netherlands and abroad and it often reflects current subcultures, youth and population culture through the use of computer design.

Coenen is also referred to as a “folk artist”. His work is accessible to a wide audience and has social impact. Despite his work being shown in respected museums, Coenen says he dislikes elitist, abstract art. Art should be in society, he says, “It’s not all about looking at art in museums or galleries. I believe that with the artwork in the Markthal, as well as on the Mascolori shoes, art can be depicted in a tasteful way that is for everyone.”

Horn of Plenty

The Markthal is a beautiful and buzz worthy design, but in the beginning it was just a large, grey hall. Artist duo Arno Coenen and Iris Roskam bid their design, “Hoorn des Overvloeds’ as a solution to this drab building, they offered an aluminium artwork that would cover the entire ceiling of the Markthal.

A print that is bigger that two football fields, 11.000 square meters. This massive print creates an overwhelming, colourful illusion that you are looking straight through the Markthal ceiling to a food filled sky. You can admire cauliflower like clouds and other fresh product fall from a light blue sky.

The artwork was created by team Coenen, which was made up of Iris Roskam, Frank Hanswijk, Michiel van Iperen, Frank aan de Stegge, Dustin Kershaw, Marinus de Ruiter, together with architect Winy Maas, and produced by Mothership.