The assignment was to develop a project revolving around the central theme of a library: communication. The architecture and history of the building, and the desire to integrate the Frisian environment in the audio-visual stories, resulted in three very much diverging projects that surprise visitors and connect them with the building.

The artists were selected and coached by curator Andrea Möller of Media Art Friesland Foundation that presents innovative and experimental arts to a broad audience in Friesland.

Exhausting a Crowd (2015) - Kyle McDonald

Inspired by George Perec's experimental literary work An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris (1974), in which he tried to map what normally goes unnoticed, Exhausting a Crowd automates this process. The result is an addictive tableau vivant of the crowds in squares in cities such as London, Birmingham, Amsterdam and China, which the public can endlessly tag with observations. The eye is controlled by the tags already placed in which spectators point out details, attribute dialogue or thoughts to passers-by, react in a funny way to appearances, sometimes ask philosophical questions, refer to famous figures (Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Who, Mad Max) or Add text-expressed sounds of passing cars, buses, taxis, rickshaws or pedestrians. Quite a few tags point to people taking selfies or staring at their cell phones: “Caught up in virtual reality,” one tag reports at 11:04 PM. A work of art that reflects on the possibilities of a future where surveillance is completely automated, brought about through a shared effort of engineering and human intelligence. A special reflection of life in public space, but also an alarming look at the potential extent of control in a dystopian society.

This artwork is interactive
Add your own tag by clicking on the image on your own smartphone or laptop.

Between the lines (2018) - Lotte Middendorp

Visual artist Lotte Middendorp plays with the architecture of dbieb. The two video walls she was offered to work with are brutally crossed by massive metal bars. Middendorp cordially accepted the visual challenge these bars represent and put the struggle at the centre of her work. We see the artist in an endless loop of bending the unbendable.

About Lotte Middendorp
Lotte Middendorp is one of the most promising Frisian artists. She makes sensitive, poetic and very personal video works in which she often stars herself, preferably in relation to the environment, the Friesian clay, the horizons, the water. More information about Lotte Middendorp.

Trek (2018) - Waterland Media

Trek features humans united by shared goals, preferences, ideas. We see children who walk to school, football supporters on their way to the match, holidaymakers, pilgrims, a committed farmer, people who celebrate carnival. They all have in common that they are dedicated to what they are doing at that moment. Through that they drag the viewer in the same direction. If we accept the invitation to walk with the people, we enter a hall where we encounter three more screens. Here we move closer to the people in the films: who are they, what moves them?

About Waterland Media
Waterland Media a film production company based in the Frisian village of Pingjum, run by filmmaker Jeroen Hoogendoorn. He mainly focusses on locality, environment and culture. More information about Waterland Media.

Prison Sounds (2018) - Marinus Audio

Experience the sound of a prison. Sounddesigner Marinus Groen collected impressions through documentaries and interviews and mixed these in a soundscape that plays continuously inside this former prison cel. Additionally, visitors can press a button for stories of former prisoners who share their experience of being locked up.

About Marinus Audio
Marinus Groen is a sound designer from Leeuwarden. He is fascinated by subtle sounds and he is an unstoppable researcher and collector. Prison Sounds is the result of in-depth research of films and literature, and of with interviews prisoners and prison workers.