KAPKAR/ IJB-SP-1862 Bridge Pier Beacon
Message from the bridge pier, IJsselbiënnale 2025
In the floodplains of the IJssel river aside of a new build railway bridge lies an abandoned bridge pier dating back to the year 1862? This pier carried the first railway bridge crossing the river that borders the provinces Gelderland and Overijssel. All other piers have been demolished. As participating in IJssel Biennale landart exhibition is was my challenge to give new meaning to this infra remnant. For that I charged it with a beacon that sits on the pier and contemplates on the significance of this location.
In my body of work, I create art that intervenes in space. They often hook onto existing structures. An ongoing fascination lies in the constantly changing architecture of the city, land and the infra that connects everything. This is going faster and faster: what centuries ago was a month-long journey around the world by horse, car and ship, can now be flown within a day. I see infrastructure as cathedrals of our time: communal edifices with which we feed our needs. It is no longer about religion and meaning but about ambition, consumption and growth.
The bridge pier, an infra witness, was the starting point for my research at the site. It bears the memorial stone of the 1st stone laid by former minister and statesman Johan Thorbecke. This man who was born in the region was not only responsible for stimulating a train rail network but even more important he the fundamental reformed of our Netherrlands Constitution. He made it possible to we can vote on who represents us in parliament. The memorial stone is badly worn. It’s cracked and contains pits from bullet impacts from World War II. It was hidden behind willow bushes and has been covered with graffiti. Symbolic of the values we attach to our history, culture and democracy in the Netherlands these days.
I studied old construction drawings and plans of the bridge pier and forged shapes and elements together into a hybrid beacon that gives the pillar a new function and meaning. The beacon at the back frames the memorable stone and imaginary transmits a message into space.
The installation KAPKAR/ IJB-SP-1862 receives and transmits with you, watches over, narrates, specifies and waits for you among the reed warblers, swallows and storks.
year: 2025
dimension: 1600 cm (including bridge pier) x 660 (d) x 740 cm (h)
materialization: constructive plywood, lacquer, steel cables
location: Hattem, past Gelderseweg 26-28
project: IJsselbiënnale 2025, route Zwolle, June 20 – September 14
director: Mieke Conijn
curators: Koen Bril, Josien in ‘t Hof
commissioned by: Stichting IJsselbiënnale
manufacturing: Studio Frank Havermans
install: Frank Havermans, Koos Schaart Adventures assisted by Niels van Bunningen
structural engineer: Pieter Pollemans
photography and drone photography: René de Wit
PUBLICATIONS
Navigeer naar Boertjesland Hattem, waar je via Crunershof rechtsom Dierenkliniek Hattem rijdt, einde straat ga je linksaf waar je rijdt op een ‘auto-te-gast’ weg en bij de eerste splitsing neem je het wegje naar boven waar je de doorgaande weg ‘Gelderseweg’ oversteekt. je komt aan bij Gelderseweg 26-28 waar je linksaf gaat en langs een weiland op een smalle weg richting het spoorviaduct rijdt die vanzelf rechtsaf buigt, je rijdt nu op het kunstwerk af. Hier en daar vind je op de route bordjes ‘naar het kunstwerk’.
the one left bridge pillar in polder Hattem en Molecaten
the memorial stone hidden behind willow branches
inspecting the memorial stone, 2024
The memorial stone
the memorial stone in 2024
Transfer, to reveil the 163 year ago hand-chiselled text
J. R. Thorbecke
Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, 1852, painted by Johan Heinrich Neuman, Rijksmuseum
The railway bridge, that opened in 1864
Opening railway bridge 1864
painting 1st bridge, schilderij 1e brug, 1870
lattice beam bridge/ tralieliggerbrug, view from Hattem, 1933
Construction February – June
Models