On my way to Veenhuizen, the train offers me an easily privileged point of view. A vast flatness. A perfect organisation. The landscape here goes through the entire process of a humanised equilibrium, where there is general consensus with respect to the word ‘nature’ and where each and every one of the parties have agreed to delineate the limits of the concept of ‘landscape’. For this fourth episode of ‘Portrait of a wet country’, I’ve created a site-specific performative installation at ‘Het Glazen Huis’ in Amstel Park. In this, the spectator will witness from the outside how two men, dressed up as fisherman, will create an artificial island, trying to recreate the ‘nature’ of the wet areas in The Netherlands, in a kind of idyllic environment, where vegetation and fauna are take in consideration. This action will takes place on a fake snow surface covering the entire surface. Once the island is finished the fishermen will take place in it, to peacefully keep fishing during the rest of the performance. The sound of birds and planes passing by will be reproduced all the time.
Presented at SLOW DOWN Winter Performance Festival 2011