How many times is the sunset photographed every day around the world? Can one really capture its splendor and magnitude? Sunset in The Hague subverts the everyday phenomenon of the sun sinking into the horizon, by giving it a 360º panoramic view and freezing the iconic image. In doing so, we question our relationship with time and image production; inviting for a durational experience.
Sunset in The Hague took place at the Hofvijver, the pond by the Dutch Senate, Binnenhof, from 6 to 9 October, 2022. Project Sunset is an on-going collaboration between Ludmila Rodrigues and Mike Rijnierse, featured in BlowUp Art Den Haag 2022.
Sunset in The Hague, is a light sculpture floating on water inviting visitors to gravitate around it, getting closer or further away, to find unusual angles and relations with the place.
The project is motivated by the urge we have of capturing images through our contemporary devices–the sunset being one of the most photographed images worldwide. While gazing at the sublime event, we tend to replace our stereoscopic biological view for the cyclopic technological perspective of the camera.
The Sunset project was first presented in Delft, November 2021, produced by Highlight Delft Festival, with support of TodaysArt, ProVlot, LucoLed, Stroom Den Haag, Rollema Logistiek and Publi Air.
This year we thank again Highlight Delft, Rollema Logistiek, Stroom Den Haag, Mary Hessing, Gemeente Den Haag, Carry Hendriks, and ANNA Vastgoed & Cultuur.
Last but not least, our deep gratitude to friends and strangers who shared the photos taken of our Sunset. The overflow of images of the project resonates the origins of this project started years ago, when we were watching a sunset at the beach. We wondered about the universal urge to capture the vanishing sun and wanted to freeze that very moment, to let it linger, to share its radiance; spend time.
Sunset in The Hague, October 6-9, 2022
Concept & management: Ludmila Rodrigues & Mike Rijnierse
Curation BlowUp Art Den Haag: Mary Hessing / BinnenhofBuiten
Supported by: Highlight Delft, ProVlot, Stroom Den Haag, TodaysArt
Water works: Jolly Roger Boten / Toon Kennedy & Jelmer Klomp
Light design: Jan Harm Wagner
Photo/video and general assistance: Jenny Konrad
Inflatable: Publi Air
Storage: Rollema Logistiek
Transport: Tjebbe van der Kooij
Advise: Carry Hendriks
BlowUp Art Den Haag is part of BinnenhofBuiten, a project of The Hague & Partners, organizing events and activities during the renovation of the historical Netherlands’ Senate (“Binnenhof”).
In the creative process, we looked at iconographies of the sunset used in film to enhance emotional charge and read about its psychological effects.
Mike and Ludmila have been collaborating since 2011, sharing a fascination for the ways human perception is constructed. In their works the audience takes an active role in sensing and constructing the experience. This involves moving, listening, often touching and always reflecting on our biological, somatic, cultural conditioning. The experience becomes a proposition for expanding and rewiring our notions of being in the world. Through these experiences the public may re-learn to see, hear and feel while their own mental image of the work. Their installations, social sculptures and site-specifics initiate dialogues with the environment.
Both artists are ArtScience alumni (KABK/KC). Originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Ludmila has a degree in architecture and works as artist, designer, scenographer, movement researcher; she is a teacher at the KABK Kunstplan and a coach at the masters Non Linear Narrative. Rijnierse focuses on sound and light perception in relation to space, he is an instrument inventor, media researcher and teaches at the Design Art Technology department of ArtEZ, Arnhem, and is a frequent guest lecturer at the KABK. They have shown works at CTM–Berlin, the Gothenburg Opera, FILE–São Paulo, Space Media Art Festival–Taipei, Nederlands Dans Theater, Van Abbemuseum–Eindhoven, the Islamic Art Festival-Sharja, TodaysArt Festival–The Hague, Cinekid-Amsterdam, Novas Frequencias–Rio de Janeiro, among others. With the Sunset Project they were selected artists of We Are Europe 2021.
