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Dordrecht
DSW Plant - a first 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
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