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Tadashi Kawamata
THE TEMPORAL NATURE OF
ARCHITECTURE
Marinus Boezem
AN EXPLOSION OF THE MIND
The names of the people, who at one
time entered Middelburg through the
Koepoort near the Molenwater (one of the
most important city gates), have forever
been immortalized. Among those pass
ing through the gate (built in 1735), were
kings, academicians, politicians, artists,
citizens of note and accidental visitors. Not
only did they walk through the gate, they
left their spiritual imprint. Every name
points to the socio-cultural significance
each of these passers-by had for the world,
and as a consequence for Middelburg.
A name is much more than a combi
nation of letters in a passport. It is code
for everything somebody has ever been
and still is. The life that the person lived;
their significance for society. The name
says something about the world from
which the person originated and the one
in which he was a passer-by, in this case
Middelburg. The name connects the past
with the present.
Marinus Boezem is a conceptual artist
for whom a work of art is mainly an idea
existing in the minds of those who want
to see and contemplate. With his chise
led names he carries us to an imaginary
world behind the names. He creates a
virtual experience. In his own words:
An explosion of the mind'. Every name
connects to Middelburg; like the name
Berghoef, for example. This name takes
us back to the days of post-war recon
struction, when a new city had to take
shape, on top of the ruins of the destroyed
city centre. The architect Berghoef recon
structed Middelburg according to the
doctrines of the Delftse school, which saw
beauty in simplicity and functionality.
We also see the names of Napoleon
Bonaparte, Piet Mondriaan, Morton Feld-
man and twenty more people who have
impacted our world. They all once found
themselves in Middelburg, and with them
their spiritual worlds. These worlds are
brought to our minds and thus they con
tinue to exist.
The names are chiseled in arduin, a
type of stone used to construct many of
the buildings in Middelburg that are now
cherished by the citizens as if they were
monuments. Yet the city's history is as
open-ended as Boezem's engraved stones,
which do not seek to cast history in stone,
like a tomb. His 25 stones do not want to
commemorate, but evoke; do not want to
immortalize, but to revive names to a city
of the present and the future. It is these
kinds of people that a city needs, because
they are different, are original thinkers
and break down existing conventions.
These persons are connected to the
history of our culture and so are the stones
which carry their names. Every stone is
different both in size and typography:
Queen Wilhelmina is written in capitals;
Mondriaan was given the typeset Futura.
Nobody and nothing is interchangeable.
The stones mirror both the past and
future of Middelburg; a city as a living
organism in a permanent flux. A city
should never aspire to be completed. A
city is a cathedral, and Middelburg is a
very monumental one at that. It should
also bravely welcome thinkers, visionaries
and people who dare to cross the line,
thereby creating and nourishing culture.
These people lie at the Koepoort like a
rich tapestry of chiseled names that move
randomly into Middelburg.
www.marinusboezem.nl
All of Tadashi Kawamata's installations
are made of wood. Whether it be a hut or
a space in a museum. The use of wood
is of essential importance for the inter
ventions Kawamata makes in the human
environment. The mill that he designed
for Fafade 2012 at the Bolwerk, is there
fore made of wood.
Wood is a self-evident material if,
as Kawamata does, you wish to create a
relationship between a geographical loca
tion, its history, and the way people live
there, by erecting a structure. Wood is an
organic material and has a history of its
own, no matter how short that might be.
It is has been manipulated by man and it
is relatively easy to construct an architec
tonic form with it. Importantly, it is a rea
sonably soft and warm material. It is alive
and it can be recycled.
When Kawamata builds an on-site
structure he finds the historical context
essential. He is mainly concerned with
the genius loci, a place's spirit. In the case
of his contribution to Fafade 2012 this
is quite evident. For centuries windmills
have been standing here; two still do. By
turning wind into energy the mills pro
duced grain, which enabled the citizens
of Middelburg to survive. However, in our
entertainment culture the historical mill
has apparently become a tourist attraction
that provides an income. An image of one
of these mills on a tourist flyer inspired
Kawamata to build one. It is not a literal
copy of a historical mill, but the realisa
tion of an idea. It is but eight meters tall;
its sails do not turn and the structure is
not accessible. The mill installation is
actually more like an image of a mill. The
spectator is no longer a visitor, but has
become a contemplator of the idea.
An important component of Kawamata's
structures is the social participation it
involves. He discusses his ideas with
the, preferably local, people with whom
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