Perpetuum it’s called work. A man in red shorts and a white shirt tumbles slowly through the air, tens of meters down over the Euromast in Rotterdam. He lands on ever-moving water and bounces up. And again, and again, sometimes with successful somersaults, then again he mows helplessly with arms and legs. Water and air become turbulent, and then the man suddenly seems to move underwater, where air bubbles slowly become planets, colors, shapes and air and water again. And again.
The hypnotic work of artist Jacco Olivier, projected on the 100 meter high concrete column of the 185 meter high Euromast, is an animation, made up of 180 individual paintings. “The work calls for great freedom,” said Hester Alberdingk Thijm, director of the AkzoNobel Art Foundation at the presentation on Thursday. “It is also painted in a dynamic touch, almost abstract.” The foundation has purchased the work, “with a little extra, so that it can now be seen here”. After Art Rotterdam on Monday, it will become part of the extensive corporate collection of paint manufacturer AkzoNobel.
The projection is a “boy’s dream”, says gallery owner and initiator Ron Mandos. There is a giggly atmosphere in the restaurant in the Euromast. The speeches show that this enormous projection in the public space has come about very quickly.
Lighthouse
A Mandos employee had seen the work on Schiermonnikoog, where it was projected for two months in the autumn on the Zuidertoren, a former lighthouse. Perpetuum was commissioned last year by the Hi-Lo foundation, which initiates large-scale works of art around the Wadden Sea. The work is part of a series: a different work of art can be seen on the tower every two months for a year.
After Mandos thought in December that it would be “cool” if Perpetuum would also be shown on the Euromast, things went quickly – also because Ron Mandos has been working with artist Jacco Olivier for years. Mandos praised the municipality of Rotterdam on Thursday for “quick switching”.
Culture alderman Said Kasmi (D66) says he is happy with the work, because the municipality wants to make art and culture as accessible as possible for everyone. “That is especially important in a city with as much poverty as Rotterdam.” He does not exclude the possibility that more work will be projected on the Euromast in the future. And the theme of the work, in which Kasmi mainly sees freedom and creativity, is important, according to him. “We must celebrate freedom, because we see in Ukraine, among others, that freedom is not self-evident.”
Art Rotterdam: pastel colours, soft textiles and Karel Appel