Theo Jansen
is an artist, living and working in the Netherlands. He studied physics at the Technical University of Delft. As an artist he started out painting. Then he started a project with a big flying saucer, which could really fly. It flew over the town of Delft in 1980 and caused a great deal of commotion. For about ten years he has occupied himself making a new nature. Not pollen or seeds but plastic yellow tubes are used as the basic matierial of this new nature. He makes skeletons which are able to walk on the wind. Eventualy he wants to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives.
Share this page
Archive available for: Theo Jansen
-
In search of the soul. Part 3: Art
If there is one occupational group tackling its own spiritual welfare then is is the artists' guild. Are the eyes the mirror of the soul? Is the soul paramount? What benefits the soul the most, the world or an Elysian island? What would Achterberg have meant with 'And in an eternal whirling loss/of flower and sun and horizon/thy quiet soul's horizons rose/blue all round the heart'? What purpose is a similarly high-flown ideal to a writer, a visual artist or a composer? Writer Allard Schröder, visual artist Theo Jansen and composer Klaas de Vries were in search of the enchantment or disenchantment of art. Dutch spoken.
