Viewpoint Carnisselande

The artwork consists of a staircase with an organic shape that takes visitors to a height from which they have an unobstructed view over the horizon and the skyline of Rotterdam. The route makes a continuous movement and drapes itself in its context in the middle of an infrastructural junction of the ring road and the tram. The tram stop marks the beginning and the end of a journey, so the route taken by the elastic perspective is infinite.

The design plays with the ambiguous relationship of the inhabitants of Carnisselande with Rotterdam, which is expressed in both attraction and repulsion. The residents have said goodbye to their mother city but feel connected to it for eternity. The artwork offers the residents a chance to experience this view towards Rotterdam, but to continue walking one must turn around again and one is again confronted with the everyday reality of Carnisselande.

The Möbius strip is the basis for the design and has the intriguing property of being able to exist only as a three-dimensional object because it has only one surface. When used as a path, it suggests continuity and infinity, although it is physically impossible to walk the path indefinitely. The continuity and infinity of the design are given a double meaning by the relationship of the artwork with the surrounding environment and the residents of the new neighbourhood. In Weiter Ferne, So Nah.

The circular shape of the construction is made of one material, corten steel. The materialization emphasizes the streamlined, infinite image of the artwork. Due to its structure, the appearance of the object is difficult to comprehend: each perspective generates a new image, making the design not only a contextual but also a literal response to the local art plan: an elastic perspective.