LAND ART ENVIRONMENTS AND LANDSCAPE PROJECTS
DSW patio
Dordrecht Holland
1969 - patio with acrylic fountain elements (tallest 450cm
high), concrete, lava stones, steel pipes Linden trees (Tilia
Europea) and grass planes - total area 30x30m - social
plant (DSW) patio Dordrecht Holland -
photo©Ton Poortvliet
"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 making his proposal and later on in the execution
of my 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.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'. At that time he was
public relations officer for the city of Dordrecht and wrote
a text about my environmental installation at the DSW"
Lucien den Arend
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