Sense of place: experiential art!

By Leah Linhares

Photography: Marc van Vliet 

Read Time: 2 mins

©de Zweefvlieg

Do you ever wonder what life is like at sea? Marc van Vliet’s installation Drie Streken brings us a bit closer to the answer. 

Sandwiched between the vast blue blanket above and the open tides below, Marc van Vliet recently gave the Dutch people an opportunity to take a closer look at life that dwells in water. Zeroing in on the UNESCO World Heritage site, de Waddenzee (translates Wadden Sea) as the apt location, his installation titled Drie Streken (translates Three Strokes) sits a few feet away from the main land encircled by rich flora and fauna, inviting the visitor to go forth and explore. 

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A theatrical performer and installation designer, Marc van Vliet designs experiential, interactive installations. With Drie Streken, he explores much more by exhibiting an arty mechanism in the open seas that will not only evoke the emotions of discovery but will also anchor the onlooker to the place – a unique low sea, with exquisitely beautiful sea and bird life, endorsing the principal premise of the exercise – to establish a ‘Sense of Place’.

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Accessible via a narrow wooden bridge, Drie Streken is a circular steel structure with a large rotund, wide, wooden platform around tall fins; which in turn enclose a round built-in bench as seating. Anchored to the soil and equipped with floating cylinders that keep it buoyant with the rising tide, the wooden fins react to the changing tides, opening up like a blooming flower. Visitors are invited to spend some time inside the installation or simply walk around it as they take in their surroundings.

©Catrinus van der Veen

Built in a period of six months and assembled on location in three days, Marc’s Drie Streken is commissioned by Leeuwarden (the cultural capital of Europe in 2018) and the organization “Sense of Place” with a simple aim in mind: to witness the small sea life at de Waddenzee.

 

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Drie Streken will remain at de Waddenzee before travelling around the coast of Friesland including some islands on the north coast of Friesland in the coming four years. A simple installation with a simple goal!

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Last month, we spoke to you about artist Christo and how he completed ‘Floating Piers’, a water installation that allowed half a million people to walk their way from Sulzano to Monte Isola and to the island of San Paolo in Italy. That was another story of an artist pushing his limits and creativity to a whole new level.  

If you like Marc van Vliet’s ingenious work of art, you might also like artist Christo ‘Floating Piers’- an installation allowing you to walk on water!