Hard Water
In an ultimate combination of man and nature (or perhaps man versus nature), Zeger Reyers has created an enormous living art installation that climbs down from the exterior second floor level of the Mediamatic Biotoop building in Dijkspark into the Mediamatic Restaurant. Hard Water was constructed using over 1000 ceramic plates, soil and different species of grass, including Gaura and Crocosmia. These grasses are long and thin and produce bright-colored flowers at the tips in the Summer months. Additionally, bulbs have been planted throughout the soil in the installation and so will also make an appearance and flourish as time passes. The half-inside, half-outside; half-organic, half-man-made structure is naturally nourished by rainwater.
The immense piece, designed and specially installed on location in our restaurant greenhouse, explores the tension between nature and man-made objects by confronting the artificial with biological processes. As such, the work is growing and evolving every single day with the artificial manipulating the natural and the natural equally manipulating the artificial. This changing appearance can be witnessed over the next four years, and so several visits are encouraged to grasp the full live art concept of Hard Water.
Zeger Reyers
Zeger Reyers believes that humans have become secondary to their own manipulated environments and as such, there is now not a single cell left traversing its ‘natural' course. As such, Reyers has become one of the Hague’s most remarkable installation artists with a strong fascination for biological processes such as eating, growing, and dying. Using this fascination and all sorts of living materials, Reyers aims to show typical processes in non-typical situations, by confronting the artificial with the natural. In this way, Reyers' installations provoke a new way of observing natural processes, as well as the uncontrollable nature of biology.
It should be noted that Reyers does not aim to pass moral judgment on the influence of man on the environment. Rather, his intention is to amplify the wonders and strength of nature, whilst at the same time highlighting the vulnerability of the man-made and artificial that has become our ‘nature.’ Whilst there are always many levels of interpretations of his work, Reyers always aims to disturb our sense of comfort.
Zeger Reyers at Mediamatic
Zeger Reyers was a Mediamatic Fellow. This means that he was a regular face at our public lectures. He has given talks on his work with fungi, organisms in beer and ancient distilling methods. In addition to this, Reyers was available once a month for one-to-one discussions with other bio- or bio-curious artists, at all levels, about creating installations and working with organic matter.
Information
'O'Tristana by Zeger Reyers
To be visited during the opening hours of our restaurant.
Mediamatic Biotoop, Dijkspark 6, Amsterdam, Dijkspark 6, Amsterdam
The installation is located alongside the windows of our restaurant Mediamatic ETEN.
This project was made possible by the Mondriaan Fonds.
