dr. M.F.A. (Annemarie) Kok

Groningen residents walk on water

On the 28th of August 1972, there is a party going on in Groningen. The 300th anniversary of Groningen Liberation Day (Groningens Ontzet) is celebrated and the Vereeniging voor Volksvermaken has organised a programme of numerous events for the city’s residents to mark the occasion. Part of the celebrations includes the installation of the so-called Waterwalk Tube by the Eventstructure Research Group (ERG), an art collective that was founded in 1967 by Theo Botschuijver, Jeffrey Shaw and Sean Wellesley-Miller. Botschuijver and Shaw place a large plastic tube in the water of the Connecting Canal (Verbindingskanaal) - at the site where the Groninger Museum is now located - and inflate it with the help a centrifugal blower. From the berth next to the former boathouse of rowing club De Hunze, Groningen residents can step into the tube through a revolving door and walk across the water. The inflatables of ERG focus on audience participation and activation and are envisioned to give people an unexpected and enchanting experience. But who were the people who wanted to participate and dared to step onto the water on 28 August 1972? What were their experiences inside the tube? Was their participation truly enchanting? For this research project, I am searching for the stories of these people to gain more insight into the collective creation process and experience of this kind of participatory art. Moreover, these stories can play a role in (thinking about) the ‘after life’ of ephemeral aerial art like the Waterwalk Tube, which disappeared from the water in Groningen after only one day.

People who walked on the water on 28 August 1972 or remember this fascinating art project are cordially invited to share their stories and contact me, via m.f.a.kok@rug.nl.

See for images of the Waterwalk Tube in Groningen: https://www.rug.nl/research/research-let/onderzoek-per-vakgebied/kunstgeschiedenis/groningers-lopen-over-het-water .

PhD research project: (No) Strings Attached. Reassembling Participatory Art of the Long Sixties [finished]

This research project is concerned with participatory art in Europe in the long 1960s and focuses on three case studies: the People’s Participation Pavillion by John Dugger and David Medalla, Mesures à Prendre by Piotr Kowalski and Documenta der Leute by telewissen. These three participatory art projects were created by artists who lived and worked in Europe in the 1960s and have in common being exhibited at the fifth documenta in Kassel in 1972. With the help of concepts and methodological principles related to the Actor-Network-Theory, this research traces actors that can be connected to the coming into being of these three pioneering artworks and the ideas and motives behind them. The project aims to give insight into the relationship between the flourishing of participatory art in the 1960s and a broader web of contextual (f)actors. In addition, it aims to shed light on the dynamics of freedom and control that played a role in the artists’ shaping of their participatory artworks and in their vision of participation.