Hidrellez is a project which Mariëlle Videler created for the exhibition space at the Amstelpark in Amsterdam. The park was originally constructed for the World Horticultural Exhibition in 1972, and the exhibition space is one of the remaining pavilions — a very transparent pavilion, where the plants and trees of the park mix with the artworks inside. The inventive concept of the horticultural exhibition reminded Videler of gecekondu: illegally built houses in the city, which she had seen during a work period in Istanbul, Turkey. New citizens, coming from the countryside to look for work, build these houses during the night, constructed from found building materials.

In the same period, Mariëlle Videler got to know the traditional feast of Hidrellez, during which wishes are made, for example by building a model of your dream house — a different kind of building on hope. The houses in the exhibition Hidrellez were made in collaboration with children from two different schools in Amsterdam, presented on second-hand doors from housing association homes.

Video made in collaboration with Maurice Bogaert.