Room without Ceilings
(1888-1975, 2020)
Videowork
04:50 videoloop, no sound



In Room without Ceilings a shadow is being casted over the construction drawing of a 19th-century school building. As a dark cloud, the shadow shifts over the two top floors of the building, remains there for a while and then dissolves again.

Being embedded in the surrounding architecture, the design of the former school building originating from 1888, in which Casco Art Institute and FOTODOK are currently housed, was adapted to introduce the enfilade corridors and rooms facing the courtyard. Already in the 1960’s there were inspection reports that stated the building was falling apart. There wasn’t enough space in the building and the courtyard, not enough daylight, and the building reeked of mold. The very tall school building blocked sunlight from other houses, leading to the removal of the two top floors of the building in 1975. The current spaces of the first floor were re-built on top of the ground floor.

The video work plays with the tension between the ideal of the architectural model and the actual use and living in that model. Revealing dark clouds above the construction plans of the architect.

 

Room without Ceilings (1888-1975, 2020) is part of the solo-exhibition 
This Creaking Floor and All the Ceilings Below,

FOTODOK & Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons,
Lange Nieuwstraat 7, Utrecht (NL)
06.03.20 - 14.06.20