The Worthless Shopping Center at Into The Great Wide Open
Everything gleams, nothing works
2025
Announcement
DATE
Jul 3, 2025
In the Worthless Shopping Mall, everything revolves around value. Or rather: the relativity of value. What seemed like waste today suddenly turns out to be a treasure tomorrow. And what looks worthless at first glance is actually full of possibilities. In the Worthless Shopping Mall, children are challenged to look differently: at things, at money, and at what we consider important.
The Worthless Shopping Mall is a living laboratory for imagination. Ten years ago, The Worthless Store started as an art project at Into The Great Wide Open. It has since grown into a vibrant mini-world where more than 100,000 worthless objects have found new life. From homemade perfumes to worn forks and forgotten gadgets. Truly everything finds a place here.
Illustration by Anne Engelen
Children can immerse themselves in a unique shopping experience. Step inside the Worthless Jeweler, browse the Worthless Museum, enjoy a crappy meal at the Worthless Snackbar, or relax in the Worthless Spa. Have your items appraised at the Worthless Bank (the more worthless, the better) or assemble your own product in one of the workshops. And pay at our self-scan checkout. Not in euros, but in imagination, timing, and courage.
At the same time, young festival-goers are part of a larger system: ITGW’OLL STREET. As Value-Transporters, they become part of the Value Exchange in the Shopping Center, where the rate continuously changes based on context, choices, and timing.
The shopping center is surrounded by a series of wonderful initiatives: Keutelbingo, the WC Potcast, Knikkerkabaal, the Tactical Forest Games Club, Naughty Rabbit, and the Sewing Factory. Each project contributes in its own way to the larger story: that value can be found everywhere, as long as you learn to look differently. Of course, there is also a film program in Podium Vlieland for the very little ones and the Kolderkrant sets the tone from the Worthless Editorial Office.
The Worthless Shopping Center is not a place to shop, but to change your perspective. A place where the useless becomes useful, the nonsensical makes sense, and where nothing is exactly enough to mean everything.
Opening hours Worthless Shopping Center
Friday 10:00 - 18:00 / Shopping evening: 21:00
Saturday 10:00 - 18:00 / Shopping evening: 21:00
Sunday 10:00 - 14:00
