Jan Rothuizen
Visual artist Jan Rothuizen (1968) is mapping reality in a way that is difficult to define. He draws and describes his surroundings: always personal but never fictional. Sometimes descriptive but more often documentary.
With his hand-drawn plans he presents his stories in a way that fits surprisingly well with how we process information in the digital age: non-lineair and layered. His drawings are both an image and a story; the viewer is free to interpret them in their own way. Even as it is pen on paper, his drawings are a direct result of the information age.
He visits cities, neighbourhoods, squares and houses, and he notes what he sees, thinks, and feels. Those places vary from IKEA showrooms to the red light district and from the bedroom of a soldier that died in Afghanistan to a detention center for illegal immigrants at Schiphol Airport or even the secret annex of Anne Frank.
Jan is known for his books De Zachte Atlas van Amsterdam’and De Zachte Atlas van Nederland, for his exhibitions in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and his drawings in the Dutch National Newspaper De Volkskrant. He also drew all the maps in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
Through his drawings, Jan Rothuizen makes you look at the world differently, a skill that organizations should have in-house to achieve true innovation. He regularly gives workshops and lectures about this subject.