Our House

On the day we arrived in Amsterdam we had dinner at an Italian restaurant in our neighbourhood that has amazing pizza. Although nothing compares to Regina-pizza (anyone who has ever tasted it would whole-heartedly agree), this pizza is completely different and is my second favourite. We went back to the restaurant tonight. Yum.

After dinner we went to see the Amsterdam Light Festival. This is the second year for the event, which features 30 light sculptures. Although there is a canal tour, we chose to do the walking tour in the Plantage neighbourhood this time. What a fun way to see the city and walk off the pizza! The light installations were absolutely fantastic, but there were so many other things to see along the route, especially the Hortus Botanicus, that I plan to go another time in the daylight as well!

The title of this exhibit is Our House. It was designed by Tom Dekyvere. As described on the Festival’s website, Our House is an exploration of “the ideas behind co-creation, couch surfing and exchange websites, which all illustrate togetherness and collaboration. The connections people make can be displayed as a web. Dekyvere mirrors this idea and uses hundreds of meters of light-emitting rope to form a house: Our House. The house functions as a cocoon of our current society.”

Besides making one think a little about the artist’s ideas, it was a really cool and fun sculpture as the lights dimmed and brightened and flashed over the pathway that went through the installation.