In the year 1999, when I was travelling back and forth between Tokyo and The Netherlands, the 8-hour time difference and terrible jet-lag gave me an idea for forming a project based on my childhood's dream.
In January 2001, the Rotterdam based art organisation CELL -Initiators of Incidents (*1) proposed me to realise the Hole in the Earth on the small square at the Diergaardesingeldriehoek, in front of their office in Rotterdam. I was immediately interested because it's located in the middle of a lively area in the international harbour city. Soon after CELL started the fundraising for the realisation of the permanent version of the Hole in the Earth, other organisations also showed their interest in participating in the project. The Centre for the Visual Arts Rotterdam (*2) offered financial support and incorporated the proposal in their Dog in the Backyard project. After that the City of Rotterdam also got interested and offered the realisation and sponsoring of a part of the construction in combination with the renovation of the square.
An initial temporary version was developed from February till June 2001. It was presented at Diergaardesingeldriehoek as a one-day preview presentation of the Hole in the Earth project, in the context of the HOMEPORT project organised by CELL. Shanghai, China, one of the other HOMEPORT cities, was chosen to be "the other side of Rotterdam". The installation was located in the Shanghai Library (*3). The Shanghai-based art organisation Biz-Art (*4) did the local production for the installation. Despite of its frequently freezing communication, the idea was very well received at both locations. In Shanghai, the event was reported as top news of the local, most-read, newspaper. It was also part of the daily news of the national television.
Nevertheless Shanghai did not become a candidate as the opposite side of Rotterdam for the permanent version of the installation. Not only because of the production problems, but also because of the difficulty to realise a proper content. If the permanent installation were to be realised there, then it would have had a small fence around it and a special guard assigned to it. This would prevent the work to achieve its goal; a 24 hours, 7 days a week, open installation, where the audience can express themselves freely about whatever they want.
Which other location was to become "the other side of Rotterdam"? Should it be the exact antipode (in the middle of the ocean), or the nearly-exact antipode, a non-inhabited Antipode Island off from New Zealand? No, there should be an interesting communication happening through the "holes". There should be a potential interest in each other's cultures. The location should be exotic enough so that the audience can see and hear the distance. Indonesia, a former Dutch colony, came up in my mind. That was in the end of 2002, when the project was slowly getting closer to its goal of fundraising. I was also familiar with their culture because I studied Bahasa Malaysia-Indonesia during my university period.
Luckily enough, a Bandung based art organisation Jejaring Artnetworkers (*5) was very interested and motivated to realise Hole in the Earth in Bandung. Bandung is a city located in the mountain area Southeast of Jakarta, made by Dutch people as a relatively cool resort destination. The city is now the 3rd biggest city in Indonesia, with its 2 million population. The city is also famous for its technical university and art university (ITB) originally founded by the Dutch. A lot of Indo-Nederlanders in The Netherlands have their relatives in Bandung.
I first visited Bandung in January 2003. When we, the Jejaring team and me, were driving in the city one Thursday night, we got stuck in a very crowded street. It was because of the screening held just aside of that narrow street. I had no idea what it was about and where I was, but I immediately said "I want to make the hole here!" Later I found out that it is a kampung (village) called Pesantren Daarut Tauhid (*6) formed around a mosque and Islamic school. Why did I get such an inspiration there? ...I don't know. To me the environment seemed to have a warm and sweet atmosphere which perhaps reminded me of my favourite Japanese countryside. It's a place where anybody who visits it for the first time can feel themselves at home in one second.
Bandung has hosted the installation for one year in the year 2004. Where would be the next "other side of Rotterdam"? It could be somewhere in South Africa, one of the Polynesian islands, or....?
a sketch of the concept, 1999
foto montage - Utrecht, 1999
foto montage - Rotterdam, 2001
a sketch of the concept, 2001
temporary version Rotterdam-Shanghai, 2001
a sketch of the concept Rotterdam-Bandung, 2003