15 - 18 MAY
PTA

"Marnix de Nijs is an artist who explores the dynamic clash between bodies, machines and other media", is how he describes himself on the opening page of his website. In the case of Push / Pull, which he made in collaboration with Edwin van der Heide, we can take this literally. Visitors throw their bodyweight at a huge hovercraft-like object. Each player has his own playing field with his 'own' interactive hovercraft. The one copies the movements of the other, creating a Tai Chi like confrontation at a distance.

This game of pushing and pulling, attracting and repelling, moving forward and withdrawing also plays an important role in another collaborative work of the two artists: Spatial Sounds (100dB at 100km/h). There a speaker is mounted onto a rotating arm that is several meters long. The machine scans the space for visitors and when it senses one it will stop and produce friendly sounds as if it wants to play. Just don't overexcite the machine because it will start rotating like a madmen.

De Nijs is not using digital media as technical gadgets. To him they are a means "to force the audience into a bigger involvement. Passive contemplation means nothing to him. In order to consume his art it is no use standing passively at the sideline, you have to step in and participate. Navigating within a virtual surrounding is tactically inserted in order to let the visitor experience the work more intensely" as Bart Rutten put it in an article about de Nijs.

Edwin van der Heide's work is directed to the borderline between the physical and the electrical world. He has been working extensively on the development of physical interfaces for electronic sound production aiming on creating new, more sound-oriented, musical languages. The last couple of years van der Heide has been translating and developing this interest in the direction of interactive physically communicating installations.

Push/Pull can be visited on the outdours balcony on the first floor of the Passenger Terminal Amsterdam

Opening: May 15, 18.00 hrs

Passenger Terminal Amsterdam (PTA)
Piet Heinkade 27
Floor Plan PTA

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 11 – 20 hrs
Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11 – 22 hrs

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Bus 28, 32, 39, 43, 59, 326 from Amsterdam Central Station
By car: Ring A10, exit S 114 direction Centrum/IPTA
There is a parking garage underneath the PTA
From Schiphol airport trains are leaving every 15 minutes to Amsterdam Central Station

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Admission € 7 / € 5 / festival pass valid

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This presentation was made possible by the Netherlands Media Art Institute

Thanks to the Mondriaan Foundation and The Amsterdam Fund for the Arts