Tunnel A10West, Amsterdam, NL, 2020
Tunnel underneath the A10 highway between Luchtvaartstraat and Overschiestraat
Commission
Material
Year
A 75 meter long mural on both walls of the A10 highway underpass in Amsterdam. This tunnel is used by cars, bicycles and pedestrians. The goal of the city of Amsterdam was to improve the safety, and the experience of the underpass.
The tunnel suffered from graffiti and was not contributing to a feeling of safety, especially for pedestrians. I was invited the make an artwork for the tunnel. My aim was to make the tunnel into an artwork itself, and give for a new experience of the space. bringing it in harmony with its surroundings.
I changed the underpass to a bright white space that lets all incoming light reflect. The black geometric pattern show shapes of circles, horizontal, vertical and diagonal shapes are universal archetype shapes that exist in all cultures and have a long history.
City of Amsterdam and AFK
Paint
2020
These shapes have been with mankind since thousands of years. People have an inborn preference for patterns and our brains are programmed to search for patterns, it is our way to organise and understand the world.
The geometric shapes change slowly and form a sort of family connecting the neighborhoods at both sides of the underpass. The size of the shapes reflect the human size, which breaks the enormous scale of the tunnel into human size portions. The optical effect that occurs as you walk past these high contrast shapes make for a continuously changing experience.
By laying hold of the entire wall space, graffiti-spraying will be discouraged, in addition to a protecting anti-grafitti system that was applied.
Keim paint on glazed bricks. Keim paint makes for a sturdy bonding and is UV-stable .