i v'
When tracing his forebears he travelled
to Normandy, where fate had taken his
Italian grandfather as a German prisoner
of war. He was confronted with the reality
of the bunkers and the cruel face of war.
But in times of peace a bunker becomes
an incongruous entity that has lost its
capacity to camouflage. Architectonic
structures that have lost their function
become autonomous sculptures and gain
a new meaning.
Nicolodi's architectonic installations
bear the characteristics of classicism,
a style carrying negative connotations
because it was favoured by the architects
of the Third Reich. The style is laden
with memories of a past that remains
unfinished. One can still feel the pain.
The aesthetics and monumentality of
classicism clash with the reminiscence
of an atrocious ideology that misused
this abstract formal language for its own
propaganda purposes. What goes for clas
sicism, goes for all architectural styles;
architecture can be an expression of
power. The triumphant skyscrapers of the
bankers are in that sense comparable to
the Coliseum in Rome.
The gateway that Nicolodi has built
on the gentle slope near the Seisbrug has
five entrances on three different levels.
The multi-layers symbolize a descent
and, in a more spiritual sense, stand for
Dante's description of his journey from
hell, through purgatory to paradise. It is a
black monumental statue, rising up from
the earth, hinting at a hidden space. It is
like a fafade that unveils, but hides even
more. Hidden behind the bushes of the
park lies the Jewish cemetery. Its earth
connects the fields of the dead with the
mental image of memory. The openings
point towards the Singel; as if the gaze of
someone driving by is captured and redi
rected to what is invisible: death and time.
This statue desires to be a gateway to the
human imagination that keeps the dead
alive. The domain of eternal memory.
www. renatonicolodi. com
V
H JtxPu#
Tamara Dees
RIDING ON A WAVE OF
IMAGINATION
Middelburg-on-sea? In a distant past
this was indeed the case, but in the pres
ent-day reality only memories of that
period remain. Tamara Dees wants to
evoke that memory and draw it into the
city for a brief moment of time. She will
have a wave roll over the calm waters of
the dead-end Herengracht; a solitary wave
rolling forth, shortly to be followed by the
next one. The wave is the symbol of the
sea par excellence. You can see, feel and
hear it. The waves provide the endless
water with a familiar face, which is forev
er changing both in form and attractive
ness. Fun and danger are inseparable in
the wave. Tamara Dees' wave evokes the
sea, in the heart of Middelburg.
Dees is familiar with waves; her
work is always related to water. It is her
language. In videos dating from 2009
she catches the rhythm of the ferry con
necting the two banks separated by the
river. Because the ferry always arrives
and departs from the same two points it
brings about a seemingly endless circular
movement. Just like a wave that never
ends. One of her sources of inspiration is
Hokusai's famous The Great Wave, made
circa 1830. His wave rises like a giant
from the sea, on the verge of crashing
down onto three fishing boats, unable to
escape their destiny. In the background,
Mount Fuji represents an out-of-reach
safety. In her 2010 installation Dees made
three life-sized abstracted rowing boats,
and hung them in the same positions as
the rowing boats in Hokusai's print, but
without the wave. The almost vertical
position of one of the rowing boats suffic
es to evoke the big wave.
In a comparable manner, the wave
in the Herengracht brings to mind the
image of the sea, and of the past. The
now closed-off Herengracht was once an
open route, and Dees' wave brings back
memories of ships passing by. The former
waves were as authentic as Dees' wave is
forged. It reaches a height of 15 centime
tres and continues for 250 meters. It is
seen and experienced; it is talked about
and becomes a story. Only when the wave
reaches the end and has lost all its power,
is a new wave launched. In between, we
wait on something that will always come
into view, and also disappear as a matter
of course.
With Soliton, the name given to the
wave, Tamara Dees has crossed the line
between real and false, and of what is
possible and what not. After all, the sea in
Middelburg can only exist in our imagi
nation.
www.tamaradees.nl
79
