Contemporary Wild

About Us

The collective Contemporary Wild is founded by two young designers, Asnate Bočkis and Willem van Doorn, after their graduation at Design Academy Eindhoven.

Willem grew up in a farm near to Amsterdam and works in the context of DIY culture, nature and constructions. Asnate has her roots in Riga, Latvia; she was educated as a classical artist before attending design studies. Her work concerns social and spatial interventions.

In Contemporary Wild they share their fascination for the duality between Man & Nature. With their provoking projects they challenge public rituals and rethink usage of natural elements in the urban landscape.

Birch Bar

Every year, when the sap is starting to run out from the bitch trees, I know, the spring has finally arrived and nothing is gonna stop it now. It is a very happy moment of the year. Birch Bar was set-up to celebrate that moment. Collective 'Contemporary Wild' created an event were people could learn how to harvest the birch juice and offered them a range of delicious drinks and snacks to taste. In our menu one can find raw birch sap, several birch sap cocktails and vine as well as chicken pickled in birch sap and few desserts. See you next spring!

Sauna Town Hall

Sauna is a sex, gender, status free zone, where everyone is equal. People get undressed and therefore loose the attributes that have been showing their status. To erase even the last trace of status, the hairdo, every person in sauna is provided with a special felted sauna hat that preserves the hair from heat. This setting makes people leave their ego behind and come up with ideas, which are beneficial for everyone. The sauna is a place that brings body and mind to a comfort, a place that can help people to come up with great ideas on future life in their own city.

For the first time Sauna Town Hall was open for 24 hours and served as a discussion place for the inhabitants of the temporary Kortrijk Conge city.

Taste Antwerp

For the festival Antwerp Fringe collective Contemporary Wild was asked to make a catering concept for the festival. We came up with an idea to let inhabitants and guest of the city to experience a wild taste of Antwerp. All the ingredients used for drinks and snacks were found in the streets of Antwerp.