Wilfried Lentz Rotterdam

For the Open Studios at the Rijksakademie, Giorgio Andreotta Calò turned his studio twice into a site specific installation. In 2010 Calò showed the space filled with water. The level of the water was on NAP – the water level of Amsterdam which made you realize that you were actually far beneath this level. Nevertheless, this is a reality that its inhabitants are not dealing with in daily life. In Venice, native town of Giorgio Andreotta Calò, the relationship between man and water is a visible and palpable part of Venetian life. With this installation the artist wants to make us aware of the fact that most of the Dutch are living in an artificial environment, that they are actually “living under water”. For this purpose he calculated the level that the water would reach in his studio if the country was not protected from the sea by dikes. He then created the illusion of the presence of the sea level. When the spectator enters the area from which the installation can be observed, the first impression is only the illusion of the sea level. Then, observing the installation from a slightly higher point of view, he realizes that the entire studio seems to be filled with water.