What Next
picture tomorrow deel 1
Next Flood
picture tomorrow deel 1
Next Flood
23 april t / m 19 june 2016
"In a little while we will be emitting so much CO2 that the earth will definitely warm up. The sea level will rise further and then what? Floods seem inevitable. Scientists devise possible future scenarios and are diligently looking for solutions for dry feet. Artists view such developments from a different perspective. They depict the way in which we look to the future in their own unique way. The group exhibition Next Flood focuses on the rising water. Next Flood is the first exhibition of the new annual program What next? Picture tomorrow in which we portray the future. " Gideon Mendel, Melle Smets, Puck Verkade, Stéphanie Roland, Maarten Vanden Eynde, Frank van der Salm
On the back wall of the main hall, South African photographer Gideon Mendel shows his Submerged Portraits. All over the world he records flood victims and gives faces to the people behind the numbers. Frank van der Salm photographed a huge LCD for Flood screen in the city of Seoul. It showed a video of the sea. For example, the screen brought a controlled image of nature in the middle of the 'city jungle'. Belgian Stéphanie Roland sends us her Postcards from the Future. By rubbing the postcards printed with thermal ink, islands appear that have disappeared under water.The 'gas station' that Melle Smets once placed in the Wadden Sea as a contrast to nature, takes on new layers of meaning within the context of the exhibition Next Flood. In the midst of all this water violence lies a canoe full of practical items, which the Belgian artist Maarten Vanden Eynde refers to the Biblical story of the flood. and Noah's Ark. The idea of the Flood also plays a role in Puck Verkade's intriguing video work Any Day Now, which can be seen in the vault. "