- Friday August 22 15:00 - 17:00 - SAIL crew parade. Drinks at Vriend van Bavink (Oosterdokskade 243)
- Sunday August 24 15:00 - Artist talk with Esther Kokmeijer and Henrik Richter-Alten + ceremonial ritual at Vriend van Bavink (Oosterdokskade 243)
Some of you may have already heard the news: Gallery Vriend van Bavink is opening a new art space just around the corner from the gallery on the Oosterdokskade 161.
The official opening will take place in November, but during SAIL we’re offering you a sneak preview in and around this impressive new space, featuring works by Esther Kokmeijer and Zoro Feigl.
Deep Meaning of Voyaging - My Sea Is Your Sea
- ESTHER KOKMEIJER
One of the least understood navigation traditions at sea comes from the Marshall Islands in Micronesia, where navigators were able to detect land from a fast distance by feeling and observing how ocean swells are influenced by islands through tidal currents. There is a mystical element to this way of navigating that is deeply intriguing.
Following her curiosity and wonder, in 2018 Esther Kokmeijer traveled to the Marshall Islands, a journey that led to the ongoing project ‘Deep Meaning of Voyaging’. On behalf of the Marshall Islands, together with Henrik Richter-Alten, naval architect and ocean engineer, Esther Kokmeijer will join the SAIL Amsterdam parade with the contemporary traditional Outrigger Canoe 'Rie Ne Jeim’ that they build together with Isocker Anwell, master canoe builder at the Marshall Islands.
'Rie Ne Jeim', is a Saying in the Marshall Islands that means: "For the common good we need to work together to keep our culture, family and Mother Earth alive, harmony and peace can be created and unity established.”
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With thanks to Alson Kelon, Key keeper of the traditional knowledge of wave navigation and canoe building, Isockor Anwell, master builder of the 'Rie Ne Jeim' and all others from WAM on the Marshall Islands. For more information, please visit canoesmarshallislands.com/
Our intention is to have this vessel take part in the parade, after which it will be taken out of the water, dismantled, and reassembled in the space as a sculptural installation, suspended from the ceiling. The installation will be supported by film projection, audio, and other means of communication.
Through carefully tuned frequencies, spontaneous patterns emerge on the water surface of the water sculpture, sometimes gentle and delicate, other times like a swirling monster. The vibrations of the water create geometric shapes that are constantly changing, a visual composition in a material that we all are.
The patterns appear almost organic, as if the water itself is speaking in a visual language of resonance. Watching becomes listening, and sound becomes image. What begins as a physics experiment unfolds into a meditative experience, turning waves into sculptures and the surface into a drawing.
Both Feigl’s and Kokmeijer’s works reflect a shared ground with how we, as humans, seek to interpret, contain, and frame the natural world, sometimes poetically, sometimes forcefully.
