How do people respond to the infringement of nature caused by man itself? This question is the drive behind the artworks of Danish artist Sissel Marie Tonn. For Tonn the Netherlands is especially interesting for investigating this question because of its history of overlap between culture and nature. This history resonates in the saying “God created the earth but the Dutch created the Netherlands”. At the Van Abbemuseum Tonn created an interactive artwork of an intimate archive of all the man made earthquakes in Groningen. Tonn’s goal is to transfer the experience of an earthquake rather than to provide information about it. This experience should not only encourage people to become curious but also inspire them to come up with a better solution for the problem. Last Saturday I experienced for the first time how an earthquake feels. The 12 sensations of the installation felt eerie and waiting for the next shock was nerve wrecking even within the save environment of ‘Het oog’ in the Van Abbemuseum. I asked Tonn whether the NAM had visited her artwork but they told her they weren’t interested.
Karin van den Driesche
Art, Design and Research 