Breeze of air
dal 30/4/2001 al 1/7/2001
Segnalato da
30/4/2001
Breeze of air
Witte de With, Rotterdam
Breeze of AIR / Hortus Conclusus, a co-production of Witte de With and AIR (Architecture International Rotterdam), explores the significance of the enclosed garden (hortus conclusus) for the Witte de With invited eight Dutch and foreign artists to create works that were inspired by the Erasmian conceptualization of the hortus conclusus contemporary city.
Breeze of AIR / Hortus Conclusus, a co-production of Witte de With
and AIR (Architecture International Rotterdam), explores the
significance of the enclosed garden (hortus conclusus) for the
contemporary city. The Rotterdam humanist Desiderius Erasmus viewed
the enclosed garden as the proper medium for depth and contemplation.
These values are increasingly important in a contemporary urban
development in which people strive for more green and resting places
within the complex urban fabric. In Breeze of AIR / Hortus Conclusus,
visual artists and designers from various landscaping traditions focus
on the enclosed garden as typology and idea.
Witte de With invited eight Dutch and foreign artists to create works
that were inspired by the Erasmian conceptualization of the hortus
conclusus: Zeger Reyers (NL) shows mushroom sculptures grown in Witte
de With's basement. Elmgreen and Dragset (DK; N) exhibit their design
for a pavilion in a local rose garden rejected by the city of
Rotterdam. Dennis Adams (USA) reproduces a highly contested Rotterdam
area for street prostitution in the form of a playground, Teresita
Fernández (USA) designs a dazzling green oasis, Fiona Raby and Anthony
Dunne (UK) create a room which makes radiation visible.
A number of
art works will be exhibited outside of Witte de With. A labyrinth of
hive-like screens and organic forms by Cristina Iglesias (E) is on
view at a defunct travel agency. A small garden island designed by
Maura Biava (I) for the imaginary character Iride, and with an email
connection to Witte de With, floats in the harbor. The work 'Two Trees'
by Cildo Meireles (Br) will be partly on view in Witte de With and
partly on a square nearby.
AIR (Architecture International Rotterdam) asked nine designers from
the occidental and oriental gardening traditions to create innovative
designs for nine locations in Rotterdam: An Erasmian garden of the
twenty-first century in the expansion of Arboretum Trompenburg by West
8 (NL). A sublime museum garden for garden art in the inner courtyard
of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen by Charles Correa (IND). A concealed,
green place of repose and contemplation, a quiet area in public space
on the roof of the workshop building Las Palmas on Wilhelminapier in
the Southern Tip/'Kop van Zuid' by Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa (JPN)
.
A safe idyll of vulnerable flowers and plants for individual
enjoyment in the city gardens in the Rotterdam City centre, the
Lijnbaan gardens at Joost Banckertplaats and Jan Evertsenplaats by
Georges Hargreaves (USA). The public promenade from the centre along
the gardens, Museumpark and The Park on the Maas by Georges Descombes
(CH). The internationally populated open-air living room of the city,
with an open-plan kitchen of barbecue tables in Valkeniersweide in
Vreewijk adjacent to Zuiderpark by Kamel Louafi (AR/D).
The abundant
green space of Spinozapark in the centre of the post-war district
Lombardijen reduced to its essential character: one small, precious
and special garden by Piet Oudolf (NL). The common neighbourhood
garden on or next to the future Hofplein flyover in the Agniese
neighbourhood by Gross.Max. (UK). An investigation to the agenda of
semi-public space for the future Central Station of Rotterdam by
Atelier Quadrat (NL). Alongside the exhibition, Breeze of AIR also
includes a range of activities.
The magazine for Breeze of AIR
includes the program for the show, the sites for the design proposals,
walking tours, and a guide for the Weekends of Landscape Architecture.
On June 15 and 16 there will be a symposium about the significance
and the role of public urban parks in Rotterdam. For more information
about the Breeze of AIR program see the Breeze of AIR website.
Witte de With Center for Contemportary Art
Rotterdam, NL