Where are we now? (NDSM shipyard) Mixed media on canvas 60 x 80 cm (Sold)
NDSM is the historical remnant of Amsterdam’s biggest shipbuilding yard, from which a creative city is emerging. The NDSM shipyard will be developed into a full-fledged metropolitan district, with space for living, work, education and culture. When the shipyard went into liquidation, several of its structures fell into disuse. New users have gradually been making inroads. Some sections of the shipyard have been redeveloped as industrial and business precincts, while other parts have been taken in hand and developed thanks to local initiatives. The area’s redevelopment has made a significant contribution to the shipyard’s current success. The NDSM shipyard profiles itself as a place where freedom reigns. The NDSM shipyard holds great promise of evolving further into one of the key focal points of urban creative energy, with a whole diversity of users and visitors, in functions and programme, and in architecture and allure. The NDSM shipyard is undergoing a process of transformation from disused dockyard to compact city, intensive and rich in contrast, lively and surprising. Flexible in utility value and the developmental process, without a predetermined final outcome, but with clear-cut frameworks and crucial accents, and with respect for the history. The public space is valuable, with narrow alleys that open out into squares or at the open water. Some of the key concepts are robust toughness, durable and stable in value, multipurpose or recyclable, pure and honest in materials and expression, palpable and function-oriented. In this strange environment two good friends of the painter find themselves and are wondering where they are. This question represents the time we are living in. Are we lost in a world in which we probably do not belong?
