Convoy Exceptionnel - Hilversum - 1998

For the municipality of Hilversum, DS Landscape architects redesigned the Kerkbrink. The official opening in 1998 is prepared in collaboration with the Griftheater and cinematographers Heinerich Kaegi and Andras Hamelberg.

One of the ideas was to make a film about the transportation and placement of the large stone that forms the ‘pièce de résistance’ of the artwork that Shlomo Korén designed for the center of the square, the final piece for the four ‘carpets of bricks’. This huge boulder comes from France, where it was cut from a rock plateau in France; it required a convoi exceptionnel, as this exceptional transportation internationally is being called. Convoi exceptionnel is also the title of the short film that arose from the collaboration.

On the evening of the opening, three video screens of scaffolding pipes were placed in a triangle above Korén’s artwork, which is sunken in the ground. The projection screens are placed high enough so that Korén’s sunken object remains visible.

Theodor Holman has written a number of poetic texts that were recited on tape by Wouter Steenbergen. Eric van Raalte creates a light show that lightens up the surrounding buildings of the square in a circular rhythm,  accompanied with the music composed by Paul Stouthamer. 

The festive opening thereby became a kind of 'son-et-lumière' installation, with speeches by the mayor and former mayor.

One of the reasons to not adopt a purely theatrical opening is the limited view of the visitors due to a mostly crowded square. That was well anticipated, during the four times the continuous performance is shown the square is jam-packed. The video high above the audience is visible on three sides; and the music and voiceover are loud and clearly audible.

A modest and stylish town party, in which Kerkbrink (the square of stories) is given back to the inhabitants.