Sometimes On Awakening We Recall A Dream (2012)
Sometimes On Awakening We Recall A Dream is PSWAR next project developed as a commission for LAPS – Lectoraat Art and Public Space Gerrit Rietveld Academy, especially for the new area of Amsterdam Zuidas and will be realized in the period summer/autumn 2013. The form and the elements of this project came as our reaction to the place where it will take place – a newly developed business center next to a railway station. Created as a headquarter of economic power in Amsterdam, placed in a futuristic setting of glass towers, this space represents someone's visions of the future. The author of this vision is unknown to us, and it stays unclear as well how is a human being included in this, a human being that should inhabit it as his/her reality. This prompted us to pose a question of what kind of a utopian future are we supposed to imagine here: the one of permanent leisure and plenty, or the one of a classless society?
The structure consists of two main levels – and we invite you to contribute to both of them:
1. The surface of the installation will be made of old doors from the demolished buildings from this area and will be used as an open stage: we invite any interested party, from individuals to organizations, to contact us and propose one or series of events for this structure. Any discipline and any form is welcome – we want this structure to be of service to the real needs of creative people in Amsterdam, without the interference of political, economic or other agendas. As many institutions in the Netherlands will be closed due to the cuts in funding, we want to offer them this space as a possibility to present their legacy as well as to reflect on this recently created situation.
2. The structure made of doors will be supported by wooden pillars and our aim is to use this part of installation for a particular exhibition of images and texts. Inspired by emas, Buddhist prayer images left in temples, you are invited to leave on the spot or send us your wish-images that can take a form of pictures or sentences. It could be a dream, a wish, even a vision of the future one might have, or anything that connects our inner lives with the dreams about the future to come. We will place this diverse material on small wooden plates hanging on the pillars, producing a gentle sound every time the wind blows, reminding the passers-by that art also has a poetic potential, and not only a decorative one. We want to juxtapose these dreams and wishes of ordinary people to this cold and closed environment of the Zuidas in order to test how much they differ. Perhaps it will show that we were wrong all the way, and that this sanitized financial center is actually a realization of dreams of Amsterdammers.