Yellow Free Zone
Adrien Lucca
Unveiling & Artist talk
17.12.2018, 16:00–20:00
French artist Adrien Lucca (Paris, 1983) has designed a light artwork for the hall of Metrostation Maashaven in Rotterdam, the metro station known as ‘the entrance to the South’. Lucca was commissioned by Sculpture International Rotterdam in collaboration with both RET and Rib, a space for art in Rotterdam South. The artwork will be officially unveiled on 17 December and will be on show daily in the hall of Metrostation Maashaven. After the unveiling, Adrien Lucca will give a lecture.
Adrien Lucca’s artwork, Yellow Free Zone, is a light installation that replaces the station hall’s existing lighting with a special white light. The lamps, invented by Lucca, work as an ‘analogue Photoshop filter in real time’. The white light Lucca has installed removes the colour yellow from all bodies and objects located in the yellow-free zone and creates a dazzling effect. Some objects become more intense in colour, and others lose vitality of colour. For Lucca, it is a serious and magical play of light and colour that questions the viewer’s perception of themselves and of the world. The work is part of the Sculpture International Rotterdam art collection.
Program
16:00 Unveiling at metrostation Maashaven
17:00 Z-Files #22 – talkshow and Q&A with Adrien Lucca, Saskia van Stein, and Maziar Afrassiabi at Maassilo
18:30 Dinner at Cultuurwerkplaats Tarwewijk
Support
This artwork was commissioned by Sculpture International Rotterdam in collaboration with Rib, a space for art and RET. This project is kindly supported by RET, LMNO Brussel, Gemeente Rotterdam, and BKOR. Sculpture International Rotterdam and BKOR are part CBK Rotterdam.
Adrien Gary Lucca (Paris, 1983) is a visual artist living and working in Brussels, where he is a teacher at École nationale supérieure des arts visuels (ENSAV) La Cambre. As well as lectures on his scientific research on applications of light and colour, over the years Lucca has developed a diverse oeuvre of drawings, prints, and installations. His work combines measuring instruments, computer algorithms, and artistic imagination. In 2010 and 2011 he was a research resident at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht. Earlier this year, Lucca’s work featured in the exhibition Mémoire # 2 White light researches/white light demons/white light demos at Rib. A recent public artwork by Lucca, Soleil the Minuit, was unveiled in the Montreal Metro in 2017.
Around Metrostation Maashaven, which serves the neighbourhoods of Tarwewijk, Afrikaanderwijk, and Bloemhof, Sculpture International Rotterdam is developing a multi-year programme in collaboration with various local partners. Together with the Maassilo, Metrostation Maashaven forms both this area’s anchor point and centre point. To start the Paleis Maashaven programme, this year Sculpture International Rotterdam relocated four public artworks from the city centre to locations around Metrostation Maashaven. The Idler’s Playground by Cosima von Bonin is now opposite the metro station at the entrance to the Afrikaanderwijk neighbourhood, and three bronze statues from the Coolsingel are now in the semi-public gardens at the Cultuurcentrum Tarwewijk. Adrien Lucca’s Yellow Free Zone is the first newly commissioned public artwork for this area.
With this new artwork by Adrien Lucca, Sculpture International Rotterdam also wants to highlight and protect the distinctive character of Metrostation Maashaven, which is on a viaduct high above the ground and supported by tapered concrete columns. Together with the overhead bridge, it forms an impressive iconic structure on the inner harbour, which visually connects to the Maassilo. Architect Cor Veerling (Amsterdam, 1926) designed the station and the viaduct. For many years, Veerling was the chief architect at the Rotterdam Municipal Works Department and designed the Willemsbrug (1981) and many Rotterdam metro stations. In 1986, he was awarded the National Steelprijs for his co-designs for the metro stations in Spijkenisse.