Once the poet Hans Lodeizen spoke of the fear for a dream world of bronze and marble, from which he escaped by staring in a puddle at the blue heavens. It might be a bit of a daring suggestion, but are the bizarre, silenced, serious and surrealistic images that glow on the outer wall of the Mediamatic Supermarkt not the contemporary version of the blue heavens in a puddle he hoped for? Well, not bronze and marble, but more glass and concrete is what surrounds the place where the projections are screened, next to one of Amsterdam's busy traffic veins, which connects the Waterlooplein to the IJ-tunnel. Unusual images that, not always without danger, can pull the rushed driver from his concentration. One can just see it happen as the traffic inches by during rush hour; passengers discover the spectacular NEMO, a youth science center, feast their eyes on the yonder Maritime museum and suddenly, hey, can you see what’s happening over there?
The projections from Mediamatic Screen are adventurous movements, all with their own character, made by 9 different artists. The clips are not at all alike, and repeatedly contradictory artistic ideologies are encountered. Driessens/Verstappen reveal the secret of an urban garden in silenced time lapse, Maurer United Architects used a computer game as architectural model. Gerald van der Kaap shows the definite Chinese, Confucian view, while Meggie Schneider portrays the reality of new China with a beautiful water ballet. Joes Koppers' artistic reflections of the place where his clip is being projected are alternated by the simplistic dimension of the absurd comic by Nepco. Merel Mirage shows the miracle of modern tourism, while Arnoud Holleman's nostalgia is focused on the post-war and apparently innocent Netherlands. Finally Will Holder's silenced colors then indeed allow Lodeizen's blue heavens to show in a rain puddle.
On this DVD these screens live a second life. Watch them on your computer screen, or use your television screen, or better yet, find someone with a nice big plasma screen and push the DVD into his machine. And let this enlighten your soul. So that these outdoor projects can also become part of your internal wallpaper.
Translation: Nadya Peek
