September 2022

SEAZENSEA

Plateaukunst 2022 Margraten (NL)

Single channel videoinstallation, loop, 27:00 min, Westkapelle, North Sea, 2022

Sound design by Daniel Dorsch

SeaZenSea

The human urge to cultivate is reflected in the garden of the blue house. Everything has its place, the garden exudes a meditative tranquility in the middle of an area dominated by agriculture. The hilly landscape which the plateau of Margraten is part of, is the seventy-million-year-old remnant of a tropical warm sea from the Cretaceous Period.
When the wind rustles through the trees it seems as if you can hear the surf of the sea again. The pulsating noise enhances the meditative character of the garden. In Buddhism, Zen is the way to a liberated and enlightened life. Through human actions, the sea is reconquering the land worldwide. Will the Margraten plateau, which is currently still at a hundred and forty meters above sea level, ever change into a tropical sea again?

"...All Rob Moonen's art projects are characterized by a circular and serial approach, in terms of content, in the manner of editing and/or presentation and in terms of storytelling. The fabulously cut film Anders/nichts from 2004, both technically and philosophically, consciously floats on loops and repetitive sequences. In essence, Rob Moonen's hyper-current oeuvre never has a clear-cut beginning or a crystal-clear end. The cyclic again and again supplants the linear..."

Rick Vercauteren in 'the farthest afar', published in Infinite Loop, 2012, Museum van Bommel van Dam, Venlo (NL)