Boiler Room
Charles van Otterdijk

07.09.2024 — 10.11.2024 07.09.2024, 20:00 West Den Haag de de vml. Amerikaanse ambassade, Lange Voorhout 102, Den Haag

For his most recent project, BOILER ROOM, Charles van Otterdijk withdrew himself from the art world for years, to immerse himself into the world of Dutch drug laboratories. Now he returns for the first time with an installation around his extensive research into the illegal, and often dangerous production of synthetic drugs.

The southern part of the Netherlands has become one of the world’s largest production sites for synthetic drugs. At the same time, Southeast Brabant is also one of the most important research and production sites for the high-tech industry in Europe. According to a conservative estimate by Tilburg University, the sales value of ecstasy and amphetamine produced in the Netherlands is at least as high as the annual turnover of ASML, one of the most valuable tech companies in Europe.

The artist himself grew up in De Peel region on the border between Noord-Brabant and Limburg, an area where in the past many labs could be found for the production of anabolic steroids, first for livestock and later also for humans. Currently, the area is considered a major production site for xtc, while crystal meth is on the rise.

Charles van Otterdijk’s new project began during the Trump era, after the artist reread the still-urgent classic ‘Brave New World’ by Aldous Huxley. In the book, children are born and raised in laboratories, but the lab is also a place where recreational drugs, called ‘Soma’, are produced to keep the citizens peacful and happy. Throughout the years, the artist visited various active drug laboratories. By accident he discovered a place that turned out to be a training room where young people were schooled in drug production. About the same time, Van Otterdijk read about a gang that had blown up many ATMs, mostly in Germany. When this gang was busted, better known as the Audi gang after the type of getaway car the gang used, an instruction shed was discovered where ATM robberies were practiced. The shed was equipped with a real ATM for this purpose. This ‘instruction lab’, that Van Otterdijk had seen by accident, became the guideline for his project. He shows photos that he managed to take in a still producing drug laboratory, and lab equipment developed and produced by the artist himself. With these lab-elements the artist could eventually open his own ‘instruction-laboratory’ for production of synthetic drugs. The first results are presented in West Den Haag.

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