SMILE was created after the merger of Onze Lieve Vrouwe hospital and
St. Lucas Andreas hospital in Amsterdam. The two hospitals are now
working together under the name OLVG.
We did a big smile exchange to bring the merger into view.
Because scaling up and working with so many new colleagues was
difficult, the idea of this project was to start with a smile. The warm
smile that you receive as a visitor or patient is the same smile that
employees at the two hospitals gave each other. 

During more than fifty special workshops, we captured the employees'
smiles. The clayprints were put directly into a special box. A smile to
keep, to show to someone, to give to someone.
The plaster molds were the basis for the final smiles, made of
porcelain. There are eight hundred porcelain smiles in two major
works: a circle at OLVG location East, and an ellipse at OLVG location
West. In both works, one smile is covered with gold foil These are the
smiles of the last two participants of the final workshop: Nurse Danielle
from OLVG East, and ICT employee Rene from OLVG West.

The artworks embody the spirit of everything we did: working together,
recording, organizing. Together, we shared surprise, trust, and
connection. Anyone who looks at the artwork automatically smiles.
And that makes us happy!