Into The Shadow

How do you transform a civil artwork into a visual artwork?How does an anonymous tunnel become a meaningful space?

By briefly taking the visitors, mentally that is, to a different place. This tunnel by the Tugelaweg, a long, rectangular, columnless tube, is particularly suitable for such a short-lived, totally immersive experience. The two 40 metre long walls, like massive display screens, can be seen as windows. Lifesize windows with a view of another world that you can be a part of. Here, we are telling a story of the world of animals.

Both walls inside the tunnel will be completely covered in led-strips with 12.000 white, bright LEDs, from top to bottom and from front to back. So we are placing a screen of hardened (vandalism proof) frosted glass with a natural, reed-like pattern on the visible side. In principle, all LEDs are fully on, 24 hours per day. But within this excess of light a few contours are moving, where the LEDs are turned off. They turn out to be animals, moving just behind the ripples of the glass. Here a story is told through light. Or, better said, with the absence of light, through shadows.

The wildlife passing through here is that of Transvaal in South Africa. They are ‘The Big 5’: the elephant, the rhinoceros, the lion, the buffalo, and the leopard. And, just like on safari, we - the humans - are only visiting. If you’re lucky, you’ll see a buffalo grazing, a waking leopard, or an elephant lifting its head. If you’re unlucky, you won’t see anything, only light. We’re experiencing the slow and unpredictable nature of the daily life of animals.

This is not a spectacular nature documentary made for television, but a lifesize imprint of animal life that can intrigue over a longer period. A layered image sometimes reminds one of the shadow play of Indonesian wayang dolls, the primitivity of prehistoric cave paintings, or a lucid dream – a dream without colour. Here, everyone can read their own animal story.