Museum of the Center of Europe EUROPOS PARKAS

Gravity of Centres

About the artwork
Esther Kokmeijer is a Dutch artist, her creative work revolving around the world in its broadest sense as well as links and movements in it. The artist is enthralled by the invisible yet always present existence of bonds, boundaries, coordinates, and meridians, and is driven by a desire to turn the invisible into visible: ‘Geography defines the world directly, and I would gladly portray geography from a poetic perspective.’

In 2011, this artist created an installation called Gravity of Centre at Europos Parkas. Twenty-seven cubes that blend somewhat into the environment with their greenish tones stand for the twenty-seven European Union states and look a little like tiny stools randomly scattered across the field. However, they are not just some stools: each of them bears the exact coordinates of the geographical centre of that country.
Author: Esther Kokmeijer
Country: The Netherlands

"Curiosity and wonder is my primary motivation.

The world at large, in all its connections and movements, forms the main focus of my work, finding expression in journeys, installations, interventions, photo series, documentaries, sculptures, film essays, books, and performances among others. I’m questioning the origins of nature through mapping the intersections between man-made and ‘natural’ forms of reality.

I wonder how ‘landscapes’ are given shape by people and vice versa. This stems from my urge to discover, order and represent the world’s (natural) phenomena on the macro and micro level. For many of my works I collaborate with scientists and other professionals from different background. I’m interested in how art and science can reinforce each other. With these cross-disciplinary collaborative projects I intent to open up alternative routes to lucid and ‘visual comprehension’ of scientific research. Among other I’m interested in the coherence between mysticism and science."

Esther Kokmeyer, January 2017

Histhorical photographs