18-05-2015

Waterlicht at the Museumplein Amsterdam, Daan Roosegaarde

Waterlicht is the latest creation of Dutch artist and innovator Daan Roosegaarde, known to our readers for his installations, light shows combining technology and atmosphere to create a beauty-based interaction with the spectator.

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A quarter of the Netherlands is below sea level. So what would it be like without all the engineering works that prevent it from submerging underwater?

“Waterlicht”, the installation by Dutch artist Daan Roosegarde poses the question and also gives a possible answer. This response is both poetic and artistic but that certainly doesn't make it any less compelling or unsettling for that matter: from 11 to 13 May 2015, the installation virtually flooded Museumplein, the square in front of the Rjiksmuseum which reopened its doors to the public in 2013 after refurbishments by Spanish architecture firm Cruz y Ortiz. One of the places that would be completely underwater if it weren't for the intervention of man, as you can clearly see if you watch the video.

The idea for the installation came with the museum's recent purchase of “The breach of the St. Anthony's dike”, today's Zeeburge dike, painted in 1651 by Dutch painter Jan Asselijn, who personally witnessed the breach of the dike and the subsequent damage caused by St. Peter's Flood. The painting clearly reflects on the importance of interaction between man, nature and technology.

A delicate balance that has always dominated the history of the Netherlands, a country whose very survival depends on the dikes, dams and waterworks invented by man as a defence against nature.
A story told through the light of artist Daan Roosegaarde where the light's evocative power is placed at the service of the environment to raise awareness of the delicate situation that so many people seem to forget.