Happiness, and its social, national and cultural conditioning is the subject of this project, resulting in an edition of T shirts and a manifestation in the streets of Graz. The T shirts carry the printouts of the percentage level of happiness typical for various countries in the world, based upon the outcomes of he World Survey study of the global density of happiness as depending upon the national character, psychological qualities and social structures that help to generate personal success, well-being and satisfaction thus positively influence the sense of happiness. The survey shows that the Nigerians - who also constitute one of the biggest immigrant populations in Graz - are the happiest nation on this planet.
Relocating or mentally and geographically dislocating the sites, and gently shifting meanings of seemingly untouchable truths, Bik Van der Pol investigate and challenge the solidity of perception's frames, conservatism of mental structures and superficial representations as well as the origins of stereotypes and their harmful damaging job of (ideological) misreading and simplification.
Society and its cultural formation within a given urban landscape and the context of a social network features as the main protagonist of their mainly site-specific constructively critical interventions and corrections to the official renderings of history and socio-political status quo.
With Laughing Gas, prepared especially for the exhibition Volksgarten, they pursue their analysis of a cultural difference, in particular with a focus on humour as a binding factor. Humour and its long-life partner, laughter are considered here as significant cultural components that generate a sense of communal spirit and self-empowerment, unity and belonging. With a vehicle distributing laughing gas (of nitrous oxide chemical formula), Bik Van der Pol spray into the Grazer atmosphere a semi-addictive ambient of positive
energy and collective experience, producing a helpless but mildly humorous spectacle as a starting point for a temporary community of the most spontaneous belonging.
