Dordrecht DSW Plant - a first urban land art project

"It was in 1969 when the city architect of Dordrecht Holland, Dirk Hol, invited me to make a proposal for a sculpture in one of the inner gardens of the DSW Plant in Dordrecht. It was the main 'patio' as he called it. It was quite large (25x30 meters). Through its situation, the garden served as a visual extension of the entrance hall. The architect had planned a pond near the huge transparent wall. The garden was not meant for people to enter - there were three other ones which had a more recreational function. This main patio was meant as a garden for viewing - more or less in the Zen tradition, was my interpretation. I had become acquainted with the gardens that Isamu Noguchi had designed and I had learned to know the work of Hans Petri, the Dutch pioneer of environmental and garden designs. Dirk Hol believed in giving the artist quite a lot of artistic freedom in preparing his proposal and later on in the execution of the design. Therefore he told me that, next to making the sculpture, I could include the design of the pond as well as the rest of the garden, for that matter, in my proposal. In subsequent meetings it became clear to me that the whole design lay open for me and that this was my chance to go far beyond making a sculpture and adjusting its surrounding to it. In fact, I didn't even want to make any sculpture in this case. Whenever there is an opportunity to do a whole environment there is in my view no need for separate, or even included, sculpture. The whole environment is the sculpture.

one of the first sketches for the 'fountain' and a raised plane of grass 'floating' partly above it

It was in that year that the now well known Dutch poet, Jan Eijkelboom, coined the term 'terreinplastiek' which can be translated as 'terrain sculpture' - I called it 'environmental sculpture' at that time. In that Period Jan Eijkelboom was public relations officer for the city of Dordrecht and wrote a text about my environmental installation at the DSW"

1969 - patio with acrylic fountain elements, concrete, lava stones, steel pipes Linden trees (Tilia Europea) and grass planes - total area 30x30m - social plant - Dordrecht NL

see more about this garden on the environmental pages
back to cities-dordrecht