On Sunday 8 February the inaugural 'Portscapes' project took place with the filming of '6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' by the Dutch Conceptual artist Jan Dibbets (1941). Originally filmed in February 1969 in 16mm and titled '12 Hours Tide Object...', the film was included in Gerry Schum's seminal 'Land Art' series of films screened that same year on German public TV. The new 2009 realisation was filmed 40 years later to the month on the beach of the Maasvlakte, an area that will soon be transformed with the construction of Maasvlakte 2. The resulting film will be presented in the Spring – details to follow.
With the collaboration of cameraman Fijko van Leeuwen, bulldozer
driver Jan Vader and Jan Willem Stoof on the hydraulic platform, the set
up and filming lasted six hours, from 7am to 1pm. Members of the press, Portscapes artists and invited guests witnessed the drawing of a isosceles
trapezoid in the sand using a bulldozer – the shape will consequently
appear as a square in the resultant film due to the angle of perspective. The incoming tide subsequently washed the shape away – see images below.
Selection of press articles (in Dutch):
* Rutger Pontzen, de Volkskrant, 8 February 2008
* Ruud van Haastrecht, Trouw, 9 February 2009
* Feature in Metropolis M, 9 February 2009
* NRC Handelsblad, 9 February 2009 (includes a photo slideshow by Vincent Mentzel)
* Schuttevaer, 9 February 2009
–
'Portscapes' is an accumulative series of art commissions taking place throughout 2009 alongside the construction of ‘Maasvlakte 2’,
a 2,000 hectare area of reclaimed land that will extend the Port of
Rotterdam, Europe's largest seaport and industrial area by 20%. Projects
of variable scales will be produced under the leitmotif itineraries and destinations comprising tours, performances, screenings and temporary sculptures or interventions, for example.
The artists currently developing projects & proposals are: Lara
Almarcegui, Bik van der Pol, Marjolijn Dijkman, Fucking Good Art,
Cyprien Gaillard, Ilana Halperin, Roman Keller & Christina Hemauer,
Paulien Oltheten, Michael Rakowitz, Jorge Satorre, Hans Schabus and Jun
Yang. More info...
'Portscapes' is commissioned by the Port of Rotterdam Authority advised by SKOR (Foundation for Art and Public Space, Amsterdam) and is curated by Latitudes.
Project information: www.portscapes.com
