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Between 30 January to 25 April 2010, Portscapes, a series of art projects will be on display in Rotterdam at the Richard Serra Hall of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. The exhibition will present the works that have been produced and presented throughout 2009 since the inception of Portscapes in February 2009. Spatial design studio Overtreders W will be responsible for the exhibition design. Free entry to the exhibition.
All of the projects have been documented in a collector’s box. This includes a cahier of Portscapes projects, a miscellany of contributions of Portscapes artists and a DVD showing ‘behind the scenes’ footage and interviews with the artists. A special edition of the box includes a bonus DVD: Jan Dibbets, 6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective, 2009.
The design of the publication is by graphic design studio Ben Laloua / Didier Pascal. The Portscapes box set, is a publication of the Rotterdam Port Authority and SKOR (Foundation Art and Public Space, Amsterdam) and are available among others at the museum shop from February 5, 2010.
On Sunday 8 November 2009, SKOR and the Rotterdam Port Authority organised a Pass Travel, excursion to various Portscapes art projects on the Rotterdam Maasvlakte in cooperation with the International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam.
On the way participants could listen to ‘philosophical dialogues’, part of the project of Fucking Good Art (Nienke Terpsma and Rob Hamelijnck) with contributors including Hans Aarsman and a botanist. Visits were made to several Wastelands as described in Lara Almarcegui’s project. She researched the ‘wasteland’ sites which can be found all over the Port of Rotterdam and produced a newspaper on the subject. Botanist Remko Andeweg gave a talk during the excursion.
Along Europaweg, participants were able to see billboards of the artists Marjolijn Dijkman, Jorge Satorre, Paulien Oltheten and Hans Schabus.
At FutureLand, the information centre for Maasvlakte 2, presentations of Paulien Oltheten and Hans Schabus could be visited. The visitors could explore the surroundings while listening to the audio tour of Ilana Halperin. They could also attend the performance of the ‘Postpetrolistic Internationale’, the project of Roman Keller & Christina Hemauer, which took place at the same time.
Lara Almarcegui (Spain) contributed to Portscapes by producing a newspaper on the ‘wasteland’ areas that are dotted around the Rotterdam Port area, including the existing Maasvlakte. The artist focused on spaces that are defined by an apparent lack of human design and development, while reflecting historical legacies and changing land-use practices.
On 9 November 2009 an excursion to some of these areas took place as part of SKOR’s Pass Travel.
Read more? www.portscapes.nl/eng/lara-almarcegui
Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller (Switzerland) contributed to Portscapes with the performance of the work entitled 'The Postpetrolistic Internationale' with help from several regional choirs. The project started with the transport of the wooden stage over the Rhine from Basel, near the artists’ home, to Rotterdam. Regional choirs then performed the hymn on stage in Basel and (on 7 and 8 November 2009) in Rotterdam. The artists intend this hymn as a peaceful protest against climate change and the worldwide energy crisis.
Thanks to:
More information? www.portscapes.nl/eng/roman-keller-christina-hemauer
Read more? www.portscapes.nl/eng/jorge-satorre
Paulien Oltheten’s contribution to Portscapes consisted of a number of photo assemblages and two videos on the theme of ‘1 becomes 2’. These were shown in and around FutureLand, the information centre for Maasvlakte 2, from 1 October to 10 December 2009. On 14 August 2009, a billboard displaying her work was installed along the A15 motorway on the Maasvlakte.
Read more? www.portscapes.nl/eng/paulien-oltheten
As her contribution to Portscapes, Glasgow-based artist Ilana Halperin created an audio narrative in Dutch and English about the artificial and natural processes involved in the formation of new land. The compelling narrative drew on fact and fiction as well as site surveys by volcanologists and the experts involved in the construction of Maasvlakte 2. The artist guides the viewer through a landscape of newborn islands and volcanoes, a Rotterdam ‘lava flow’ and the ‘industrial volcanoes’ of the city’s port. To quote Mark Twain’s astonished account of the eruption of Kilauea in 1866: ‘Here is room for the imagination to work!'
‘A Brief History of Mobile Landmass’ is available on MP3 player for visitors to the information centre for Maasvlakte 2, FutureLand, until 2013.
Read more or listen? www.portscapes.nl/eng/ilana-halperin
Rob Hamelijnck and Nienke Terpsma of Fucking Good Art were ‘embedded’ on Maasvlakte for four weeks between 21 August and 21 September 2009. They lived and worked in a container unit between a dune and a windmill overlooking the construction of Maasvlakte 2. In this uninhabited but extensively used industrial area, they manned their temporary web radio station and research unit to experience the area and to create Portscapes_ON AIR – Station Maasvlakte.
On this website you can listen to soundscapes of the audio walks and the interviews they held with locals and with guests who shared their unique view on Maasvlakte-related topics.
Read more or listen? www.portscapes.nl/eng/fucking-good-art
The photograph ‘Europahaven, Rotterdam, 17 June 2009´ that Hans Schabus contributed to Portscapes added a new chapter to his ongoing series of ‘arrival photographs’ featuring the sailing boat ‘Forlorn’. The photograph, taken in Rotterdam, was displayed on a 5 x 9 billboard along the A15 motorway on the Maasvlakte in July 2009. A small exhibition of Schabus’s work was also shown in the Maasvlakte 2 information centre, FutureLand, from 3 July to 30 September 2009.
More information? www.portscapes.nl/eng/hans-schabus
On Wednesday 17 June 2009, Hans Schabus added a new chapter to his ongoing series of ‘arrival photographs’ featuring the sailing boat ‘Forlorn’ in the Port of Rotterdam.
Hans Schabus, 'Europahaven, Rotterdam, 17 June 2009', 2009. Courtesy: the artist.
Read more? www.portscapes.nl/eng/hans-schabus
The film ‘6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective’ (2009) premiered on 14 June 2009. This took place in FutureLand, the information centre for Maasvlakte 2. Jan Dibbets produced this artwork on the pristine Maasvlakte beach early one Sunday morning at the beginning of February during Art Rotterdam. The end result is an 8-minute-long film. It has been exactly 40 years since Dibbets made the original of this now classic work, which was shown on German television as part of Gerry Schum’s Fernsehgalerie ‘Land Art’ - Fernsehausstellung I (1969). The film shows how, with the help of a shovel, Dibbets draws a rectangle in the sand in which a correction is made to allow for the perspective. The rising tide then washes the drawing away.
Dibbets in New York
'6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (2009) was screened during Latitudes' participation in 'NO SOUL FOR SALE - A Festival of Independents' (24-28 June 2009) in New York.
‘6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective’ (1969/2009) was shot on Sunday 8 February 2009 on the edge of Maasvlakte in the Port of Rotterdam.
Read more? www.portscapes.nl/eng/jan-dibbets
Portscapes was officially launched during the press conference of Art Rotterdam 2009. This was followed by an excursion, on 5 February, on the theme of the Portscapes programme including the underlying vision, the participating artists and the time schedule. Presentations were held by the Rotterdam Port Authority, SKOR, Latitudes (as the curators) and the artists Marjolijn Dijkman and Ilana Halperin. This was followed by the first Portscapes project, entitled ‘6 hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective’ (2009), on 8 February.