Black Water
Zeeburgereiland, Amsterdam
Black Water shows an obscured world in Amsterdam that will disappear in only a few months. In the middle of the new and luxurious residential area of Zeeburgereiland you will get an intimate experience of a space that was once “our common shithole”. Our intervention emphasizes forgotten qualities in our contemporary cities. Black Water lets you enter darkness, silence and absence. Contrasting strongly with the young urban neighborhood that surrounds the silo nowadays.
Opened in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the installation was named one of the best visual art projects of 2021 by NRC Handelsblad and was a finalist for the Amsterdam Art Prize in 2022.
Reveling the potential of Vacant NL
With the installation Black Water, RAAAF once again points to the unique hidden qualities and potential of 10.000 vacant public buildings in the Netherlands, presented in the Dutch pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2010. These buildings were constructed in different eras, with function, crafts and the use of materials being time specific. As non-reproducible buildings, the silo’s represent the current disappearance of irreplaceable affordances and experiences offered by vacancy in all our cities. Often it is forgotten that these vacant public buildings don’t belong to the real-estate market but are unique common resources that potentially could be available to all inhabitants in society.
Data
Client: Rietveld Academy
Team: Ronald & Erik Rietveld, David Habets, Daria Khozhai
Collaboartion with: Rene Boer and Jeroen Boomgaard
Client: Municipality of Amsterdam and Sandberg Institute
Photography: Maurcie Spees
Location: former sewage treatment silo, Zeeburgereiland, Amsterdam
Status: temporary installation 2021 (Amsterdam Art Prize)
Quotes from press reviews
Best Visual Art internationally, 2021 – NRC- Handelsblad - by Hans den Hartog Jager:
“Black Water by artist duo RAAAF ( Ronald and Erik Rietveld). One of the most impressive works I saw this year: a very subtle installation in a huge, vast former sewer treatment silo- breathtaking.”
NRC - Beeldende Kunst - Recensie Black Water
"Kunststudio RAAAF zaagde eerder een bunker en een testinstallatie voor de Deltawerken in stukken. Nu laat het je in een oude rioolzuiveringsinstallatie duisternis, ruimte en leegte ervaren – middenin een kersverse Amsterdamse woonwijk."
Volkskrant - Beeldende Kunst - Recensie Black Water
"In de bagger van Amsterdam biedt 'Black Water' stilte en contemplatie.
Het Parool - Reportage
" De Poëzie van de leegte heerst in Megasilo Zeeburgereiland. Een tijdelijke installatie van het kunstenaarscollectief RAAAF"
Amsterdamprijs voor de Kunst 2022- Parool - interview Ronald en Erik Rietveld
Kunstenaarscollectief RAAAF: ‘Geef jong talent tijdelijk toegang tot die enorme zee van leegstand’
