(Un/En)closure
10 000 bodies moved 23 million cubic meters of earth to separate the North Sea from the Zuiderzee. Saving human life but leading to the death of an ecosystem that was replaced by the freshwater lake Ijsselmeer. In the face of rising oceans, the Dutch Waterschap has realised that land will have to be ceded back to the sea- making the Afsluitdijk a site of negotiation.
Using their bodies as mediators, two swimmers pull dashed lines along either side of the seawall. After tracing parallel paths, they diverge, unzipping the divide. Opening space as they leave the frame to join the waters beyond.
Swimming becomes an act of drawing that is suggestive of demarcations, like those on a map or diagram. But these markings don’t just exist in a two-dimensional schema, here, lines are subject to the motion of the swell. After human activity hauls itself before and out of the viewers’ gaze, the waters’ ebb carries a new potentiality.
Shown at Rietveld Uncut in the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 2022.
Created in collaboration with Aljoscha Lahner.
10min HD video installation on floor based TV monitor
10 000 bodies moved 23 million cubic meters of earth to separate the North Sea from the Zuiderzee. Saving human life but leading to the death of an ecosystem that was replaced by the freshwater lake Ijsselmeer. In the face of rising oceans, the Dutch Waterschap has realised that land will have to be ceded back to the sea- making the Afsluitdijk a site of negotiation.
Using their bodies as mediators, two swimmers pull dashed lines along either side of the seawall. After tracing parallel paths, they diverge, unzipping the divide. Opening space as they leave the frame to join the waters beyond.
Swimming becomes an act of drawing that is suggestive of demarcations, like those on a map or diagram. But these markings don’t just exist in a two-dimensional schema, here, lines are subject to the motion of the swell. After human activity hauls itself before and out of the viewers’ gaze, the waters’ ebb carries a new potentiality.
Shown at Rietveld Uncut in the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 2022.
Created in collaboration with Aljoscha Lahner.
10min HD video installation on floor based TV monitor
2022
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