Water Theater
Type: Art Location: Zoetermeer Client: Municipality Zoetermeer Team: Bart Reuser, Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers with Joost Lemmens, Rolf Pederson Cost: Euro 90.000,00 First design: 2005-09-24
Our proposal for the Water Theatre on the Oostkade in Zoetermeer, 6 metres below sea level, takes the form of an intervention in public space; however, the intervention is not meant to be the actual work of art, but to make art out of a public space: a theatre.
We will widen the stairway from the dike to the water to act as a grandstand. A curtain that responds to the presence of passers-by, to on-lookers, will frame the view. The proposed dock will extend further into the water. It is a potential podium, but in a much stronger sense, real life is the podium.
The curtain is a permanent screen of flowing water; 6 metres high. It shows manifestly how the polder is situated in relation to sea level. The flowing water dramatises the level of the polder. When closed, the curtain acts like a shutter, obscuring the view offered from the Oostkade of the canal and the houses. The curtain is linked to sensors in the bank that respond when a passer-by takes a step onto the bank. Then the curtain opens in front of the visitor, suddenly showing a view of the waterway. Everyday, familiar reality suddenly becomes a work of art: reality is art.
