Culturele Woensdag - Rotterdam

22 September
Rotterdam

+ The day began at 10am Rotterdam station, luckily I knew where I had to be by following the huge group of students. We started by walking through the city direction Booijmans.  This took us past the Westersingel, and a collection of sculptures.

Watersculpture - ironically made better by all the algae

A little bit disturbing and strange

+ Then it was the Booijmans.  The first exciting thing to be seen was the 'garderobe' in the museum's entry foyer.  It was an installation I'd once admired in a magazine on my couch in Sydney, and now I not only got to see it in person, but use it too! 

Thats my cardigan on the left!  

Amongst a variety of impressive exhibitions, my favourite was  Olafur Eliasson's "Notion Motion".

"Notion motion bestaat uit drie delen, waarin de interactie tussen water, licht en de bezoeker centraal staat. Met eenvoudige bestanddelen heeft Eliasson een fabelachtig werk gemaakt. Hij dompelt de beschouwer onder in een overweldigende visuele wereld, die tegelijkertijd ook heel simpel en minimaal is. Dit alles wordt zichtbaar gemaakt door een wisselende interactie tussen licht en water."
Olafur Elliasson @ Booijmans

I love his clever and subtle installations, and have seen some of his works on display in Sydney before. They're always beautiful in their simplicity.  I also enjoyed being able to interact with some of the artworks, and set to jumping up and down on the floor with determination.

+ After the Booijmans we made our way to an exhibition of Joep Van Lieshout.  I found the whole exhibition quite disturbing, and some of the work a bit hard to stomach.  I found the first half of the exhibition quite clever and interesting, although it still gave me shivers.  Made me think of George Orwell's 1984.  The second half was the most disturbing, operating tables, drained bodies, gas masks, corpses, limbs.  I can appreciate the concept and meaning behind the work, and looking as an artist I was impressed by the artistry and composition.  But a more natural instinct in me shied away from the works.  Although, that is also one of the intentions of the exhibition - to shock, put on edge, disturb and provoke.  It was definitely memorable, and the name and images will stay in my mind for quite some time.