Public Air Filters (2021) | Anne-Jan Reijn Archived

ART PROGRAMME OF STICHTING NDSM-WERF AND NIEUW DAKOTA

Anne-Jan Reijn asks what is actually going on in the outdoor air we breathe. Filtering air in public spaces renders all other air as unfiltered. This immediately raises a question: is the unfiltered air perhaps not to be trusted? Anne Jan’s series of sculptures can be viewed between July and October, and during this period they are changing. This slow process is in fact the essence of the work.

In theory, every cubic meter of filtered air leaves a residue on the outside of the filters. The artist wants to play with this residue, creating an archaeology of air filter contamination, where some form of manipulation is permissible. What if that residue on the filters forms the most insanely colored crystals? Does that have a direct psychological consequence, making the air we breathe undesirable or unpleasant, for example? Reijn plays with the idea of danger that we cannot see. Invisible risks that are in the air, such as asbestos or a virus, inspire fear, but can also evoke a form of awe. With this work, the artist offers a different perspective on this fact by materializing the invisible. “We are constantly connected to invisible matter – and with it risks – and we systematically try to eliminate them. In the current era, the bond of trust we have with science and politics is under great pressure,” says Anne-Jan Reijn.

Under no circumstances does the artist claim that the filtered air is safer than the unfiltered air: “This is really a work of art, which plays with the idea of distinction.”

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