Joost Conijn

Like many artists, Joost Conijn makes stuff. But then he turns the key in the ignition of a piece and drives it across the continent, or flies it through the African desert. In 2002, he toured Eastern Europe and the Ukraine in a DIY car, Hout Auto, built from wood and fueled with logs that he gathered along the way. He passed through Albania and Romania and even penetrated, under alternative power, the area around Chernobyl. In 2000, his airplane, also homemade, took to the air above the Moroccan desert following a long struggle with the elements. He also works in film, and his recent Siddieqa, Firdaus, Abdallah, Soelayman, Moestafa, Hawwa en Dzoel-kif (2004), about seven children from a Dutch family with Islamic religious convictions, recently prompted a great deal of discussion. Iron and Video is many books in one: an instruction manual, a travelogue, a coffee-table trophy, a tale of adventure, a manifesto and altogether a fascinating read.