SEVEN ARTISTS PROPOSALS

Seven Artists' Proposals for the Zuidas

A collaborative effort by the Professorship of Art and Public Space, the Sandberg Institute and the Virtual Museum Zuidas.

Curator Mark Kremer
 

Proposal Arik Visser

Dimensions 8 x 4 meters
Material print on textile
Website www.arikvisser.nl

‘Using ten men and women as basic material, I have put together composite images of a man and a woman who play the main roles in a propaganda piece for Zuidas. This will take the form of a large banner hung on the side of an old people’s home at the edge of the Zuidas area. The banner presents a picture of a perfect Zuidas world, with parks for children to play in, since the double-income families have an average of 1.3 children. In competing with the centre of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Europe, Zuidas is Potzadammerplatz in the polder. This is where the people who are making the economy, shaping it, helping it get ahead, are located.’

Proposal Linda Nieuwstad
Title Did you make this yourself, Mrs. De Vries?

Dimensions 5 – 6 meters high
Material RVS and aluminium
Location outside the ground floor of the ITO building, on the Debussylaan side
Website www.lindanieuwstad.nl

‘Seventeen years ago, right after her husband died, Mrs. De Vries made this tree. Isn’t it beautiful?’

Proposal Patty Groot Bluemink
Title Bird Office

Dimensions 6 x 6 x 13 meters
Material concrete
Location in between office complexes, exact location negotiable
Technical advice Monadnock, Job Floris Architect
Website www.aboutpatty.nl

‘The area known today as Zuidas was once a green zone. Now it is being transformed into a prestigious business centre. Trees, plants, and the occasional animal have been introduced here and there, but they make a modest impression.

I want to build an office tower for swifts. These birds do not cause any nuisance in terms of noise, keep the area around their nests clean and mainly live their lives on the fly. With this efficient stack of bird-holes I am also offering an elegantly designed location for a natural element. But in the un-designed air, swifts are free. Their movements and cries testify to that.’

Proposal Richtje Reinsma
Title Material Revolution

Dimensions circa 800 m2 (the area covered with textile)
Material tufted wool or tufted synthetic fabric
Location western section of the underground corridor connecting the WTC buildings beneath the Zuidplein (Nauta Dutilh side)
Technical advice Studio Van der Scheer
Website: www.richtjereinsma.nl

‘The underground corridor that connects the WTC buildings on the Zuidplein and opens onto a garage and a bicycle stall is broad, straight and empty. Reflections of the fluorescent lighting multiply upon the stone tile floor. The sounds of footsteps and voices echo and re-echo. I want to upholster a section of this corridor from top to bottom, to cover the floor, walls, ceiling, doors and all upholsterable elements in textile. The fabric will be printed with the grid of the tile, the colour and texture of what it hides. This material revolution will transform the space into an absorbing cocoon in which pedestrians will feel their bodies reacting to their changed environment.’

Proposal Su Tomesen
Title LIFT

Dimensions lift shaft: 1.5 x 1.5 x 15 meters
lift cage: 1 x 1 x 2.5 meters
Extra 1 moiré pattern on inside and outside of shaft
Extra 2 modulation of alpha wave with audible low frequency
Extra 3 Lounge Chair by Charles and Ray Eames in lift cage
Material steel and glass
Location Zuidplein
Architect Falco Webbink
Sound artist Bas van Koolwijk
Website www.sutomesen.nl

‘I like to travel. Travelling widens your gaze and broadens the horizon. Other cultures and subcultures, the behaviour of people and the design of public space interest me and are reflected in my videos, photos and installations.

I want to place a lift in Zuidas – a monolithic lift without a building – that focuses on travelling and staying somewhere. Previously I designed a horizontal trip: ‘The Path’, a rolling track in an indoor forest in the auditorium of the Melkweg in the centre of Amsterdam.

With LIFT in Zuidas, I want to literally and figuratively transport my audience, to stimulate the senses so as to let the mind wander off and embark upon an imaginary journey. The visual and auditory input and the sensation of movement will cause the lift, in principle a non-place, to gain an identity through the visitor’s mental projection. In designing this work, I was inspired by the architecture of Zuidas, by scientific knowledge and by optical art.’

Proposal Yasser Ballemans
Title Dragon

Dimensions length: 1.40 meters
highest point: 2.30 meters
lowest point: 20 centimetres
width of tale: from 20 centimetres to 2 meters
diameter of circle: 7 meters
Material reinforced concrete with black pigment
Location exit S108 Ringweg-Zuid / Amstelveenseweg
Website www.yasserballemans.exto.nl

Mysticism in a business centre – it sounds like totally different variables, yet Yasser Ballemans subtly brings them together. In the financial headquarters of Amsterdam, between highway, train and airport, there is a mystical spot to be found – at least for those who care to look further than the length of a tail.

 

Projectvoorstel Zhifei Yang
Titel Bling-Bling

Maat Whole building
Materiaal Ceramics
Locatie WTC office buildings

‘The inspiration of this project comes from the happy dreams of my childhood and the pop culture of Bling-Bling stickers used to decorate cell phones. Enlarging sticker’s size, to decorate an entire building – to change the atmosphere around the building into a more fantastic world. The Bling-Bling will explore the boundary between the real and the dream worlds and allow people to forget their worries and imagine a more colorful place. Image this building ‘Een’ with beautiful and shining stickers, like a dreamland. It will not only change the building itself but also change people’s feeling for the Zuidas area into a place of dreams and Bling-Bling.’

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