March 2009
This work relates to the character of parks in general, and to the Amstelpark in the south of Amsterdam in particular. This park is notable for a determined idealism in its layout and features, an admirable striving for peace, restfulness, and order in hopeful disregard for its location between a motorway and busy railway line.
The installation Amstelpark parapark is intended as both a respectful acknowledgement of and a critical comment upon this idealism. It is composed of two parts, as follows:
Amstelpark parapark part 1 is a video sequence with accompanying soundtrack, which follows a wandering through the Amstelpark from the first person perspective. What is not immediately obvious to the viewer/listener is that the soundtrack does not match the video. Footsteps, the rustling of trees, and birds are heard, but these are not the sounds of the Amstelpark. In fact, they are sampled sounds from the rainforest, tundra, and other wild places far away. The work is therefore an idealised version of reality, a vision of what could be.
Amstelpark parapark part 2 consists of four large black cuboid forms, each with a small round hole at eye level. When the viewer peers through this hole, initially only darkness is visible. As the eye adjusts to the light, however, shapes begin to appear. These shapes are tiny scale models of the various buildings and structures in the park, so dimly lit as to be almost invisible and in such a way that a distant and ethereal impression is created. They can be seen as the barely-visible traces of a parallel, dreamlike world in which the ideals inherent in the park have been fully realised.
The work was presented in “het Glazen Huis” in the Amstelpark between 15th March and 5th April 2009, as part of the exhibition “Groene Vingers” organised by Stichting ZET.