The hanging gardens of Babylon
15 August till 26 September 2010
HEEMSKERK - This 'material arrangement' was part of the exhibition 'Schone Schijn' at temporary museum Heemskerk in the Netherlands. This site specific work was developed in close collaboration with Jaap Velserboer and Ronald Tebra, Stichting Beeldende Kunst Manifestatie Heemskerk, The North Dutch water company, Car dealers Klok & Thissen and Poelenburg, Multimade Heemskerk, MIK meubel interieur Koevoets, and the volunteers who made this artwork possible.
'THE HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON' - was realized in the summer of 2010. Curator Jaap Velserboer asked me to investigate the nature in this Euro 2000 protected nature reserve - a dune area nearby Heemskerk.
'MAERTEN VAN HEEMSKERCK' - The title for this artwork was inspired by a painting of the Dutch portrait and religious painter Maerten van Heemskerck who was born in this region. He had depicted 'The hanging gardens of Babylon' - a garden and one of the world wonders in the city that we know of today as Baghdad. This garden was made by Nebuchadnezzar especially to please his wife Amytis of Media who missed the nature in this big city. In Heemskerk I turned this idea around.
By rearranging existing objects from just outside this reserve, like cars from the car boulevard, sea-containers from the industrial area and wooden boxes from the nearby tulip bulb industry and bringing them together in this dune area, gave rise to a heated debate between corporate, institutional and public actors concerning the parameters of this protected reserve. This valuable discussion outlined and visualized the borders of this artistic intervention and researched what exactly could be considered nature here.
This site specific artwork made me realize the potential for art, when it is able to activate the public and contribute to the democratic process of (re)shaping and (re)thinking our everyday surroundings. 'The hanging gardens of Babylon' showed the importance of process based art works that facilitate dialogue and interaction.
Two video's were made during the realisation of the project; 'Functor' and 'The ode'.
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Best regards, Edwin Stolk.
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