By Jeanne Tan / 06-04-2010

Zaandam-based spatial designers Overtreders W (Hester van Dijk and Reinder Bakker) took inspiration from the harbour for the design of the exhibition Portscapes.

Currently showing at Rotterdam's Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, the exhibition displays the end results of a year-long cultural project that invited Dutch and international artists to reflect on Maasvlakte 2, the extension of Rotterdam’s harbour. Underway since 2008, the extension will increase Europe’s largest harbour by 20%, enlarging The Netherlands by around 2000 hectares.

As the artworks were mostly multimedia - video, sound installations, photography, performance and even a newspaper - the designers wanted to create a tangible intervention for the display. The resultant shipping containers made out of fabric create intimate, partially enclosed areas to experience each artwork. Through the play of transparencies of the textiles - voile, cotton and cheesecloth - the exhibition slowly reveals itself, alluding to an illusory, fog-filled harbour that's yet to be built. Each artwork has its own text printed onto a cotton label which is sewn onto the container. A path of black tiles - normally used for anti-slip flooring - connects the different containers, referencing basalt tiles often found in harbours.

The idea of interfering with the artwork didn't particularly appeal to some artists initially. "The whole process of designing an art exhibition was quite new to us, and I think that's an advantage, because we were naïve in a way," explains Hester van Dijk. "Of course we were aware of the fact that an exhibition design is mainly there to present the art in the best way, but we thought we could make something out of the ordinary without overruling the art. Some of the artists immediately liked the idea to present their work against a background made of fabric, but others disapproved of it entirely. In the end, the artists were happy with the way we showed their work."

The project was made commissioned and supported by the Port of Rotterdam Authority and SKOR (Foundation Art and Public Space).  The artists were invited by Latitudes curatorial office.

Portscapes is on view through 25 April 2010 at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam.

Photography: Jorn van Eck and Isabelle Hennings Backer

Add to favorites