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work that is mentioned last in the catalogue, the Soft Living the cultural collaborator who organised daily events in
Room (SLR), which was made as an environment especially Fantasio. After a fire in the restaurant directly beneath the
for this exhibition. In the catalogue a sketched design of the room that houses the Soft Living Room, Fantasio closes for
SLR is pictured. a few months from August 29 , 1969. Welmoed Lebbing
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takes home what is left of the Soft Living Room for her chil-
This first Soft Living Room is executed in dark blue fabric dren, who play in it for the years to come.
from the Albert Cuyp market, accented with coloured fabric
with flower figures. It is an enclosed space with a diam- On the 1 of December, 1969, the building reopens, but
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eter of roughly five meters. On the walls a scenic picture is now under the name of The Kosmos Meditation Centre,
stitched in fluorescent colours. On the floor of polyurethane where the emphasis is on spiritual introspection and yoga.
foam stand a number of soft hills, each filled with foam Memories of the Soft Living Room remain, however, as can
pieces. The interior is lit with Christmas tree lamps that act be seen from a 1971 article in Aloha magazine which makes
like stars in the night sky which light the clouds in the air reference to a Soft Room: ‘We go upstairs. An audio-visual
and the colours below. room where eastern music is played and slides are shown.
Next to this is the soft room. Totally filled with a delicious
After Haarlem, the works are transported to Berlin, to the layer of foam.’ Evidently the installation played such an
exhibition ‘Art 69’ in KaDeWe (Department Store of the important role in the previous interior that the work’s name
West) from April 25 - May 1969. To the disappointment of remains attached to an area where you can lounge or chill,
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the organiser, Gerd Klemm, the Soft Living Room does not as it now referred to, on the soft floor. This function aligns
accompany the other works to Berlin. The SLR is, however, with that held by the Soft Living Room in Fantasio: a soft
discussed in the catalogue and named as an example of the landscape for listening to pop music and coming closer to
way contemporary textile art is freeing itself from the limita- art, a place in which to live as it were. A social sculpture, a
tions of walls and becoming an object in its own right. playful space in which to drink herbal tea, listen to music,
relax and expand the mind.
Although the Soft Living Room does not go to Berlin, it does
get a second life. Willem de Ridder, active in the metropol- Whatever the fate of the first Soft Living Room, the work
itan youth scene, loads the Soft Living Room in his van and soon had a successor in the art world. During the exhibition
brings it to Fantasio at the Prins Henderikkade, Amsterdam. in Haarlem, Benno Premsela asks Maria van Elk to make a
Fantasio had opened a few months earlier, on March 29 , new SLR for the Textile Biennial in Lausanne. On October
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one day prior to (the now famous) Paradiso. Both youth 20 , 1968, Maria sends a letter to Lausanne with a partic-
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centres came about due to the initiative of Willem de ipation request in which she explains her plan for a Soft
Ridder, Paradiso as a location for experimental music and Living Room in nine points. Her departure point is that art
Fantasio as a shelter for the so-called Central Station youth has become inaccessible, that people no longer play a role.
who were seen as a nuisance at the city’s main train station. Therefore she proposes to create a space in which people can
In Fantasio you find, in the words of Willem de Ridder, collectively relax.
a ‘shop for second hand things, macrobiotic restaurant,
teahouse, film and seats to relax in.’ In Hitweek magazine of On December 5 consent follows from Lausanne. The
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November 15 , 1968, an article appears about the SLR. A granting of a material and travel subsidy from the Ministry
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week later Maria appears as the cover girl of the same maga- of Culture, along with access to a large studio on the Prin-
zine in a photo by Peter Rutting, depicting her as a hippie seneiland belonging to the Stedelijk Museum, enables her to
lounging on cushions in the studio of Anni Apol. begin creating a new Soft Living Room using better materials
(artificial fur, thick polyurethane foam, satin and wood).
The Soft Living Room is given a place at the back of the SLR 2 is given a diameter of four meters and a height of
building and only the interior – the hills and walls - are two meters. Set within it is eight sculptures, portable hills
installed, no ceiling. ‘You sat there in the sun that shone of modelled polyurethane foam covered with artificial fur.
through the big windows,’ remembers Welmoed Lebbing, The walls are covered with satin upon which a black/white

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