Kasco

About this artwork.

The sculpture is located in the neighbourhood park Het Onland, a green, open area of 6.5 hectares that is bordered by offices, housing, a canal and a motorway. In the centre of Onland lies an artificial “marsh” that is reminiscent one of the original, wet, peat meadow landscape. Kasco stands in the centre of this “marsh”. It is a kind of glassless greenhouse consisting of four night-blue trusses. The trusses are uneven in size and arranged one after the other, descending in height, which suggests a construction sinking into the peat bog. Three bronze-coloured spheres “float” between the trusses.
 
Joost van Hezewijk found inspiration for his “open-air greenhouse” in the famous 19th century palm grove in London’s Kew Gardens. In the romantic park architecture of the time, ornamental greenhouses occupied an important position as centrally located buildings filled with exotic plants.
 
In his design, the artist met the requirements established for the commission. Firstly, the piece had to reference the contrast between nature and culture, i.e. the spontaneous vegetation of the “swamp” on the one hand and the stark shapes of the park and the residential area behind it on the other. A second condition was that the design would fit in and “grow” with the process of hydrosere and peat cutting in the swamp. It was therefore the intention that Kasco would slowly be overgrown by advancing reed beds, alders and willows. However, the composition of the soil turned out to be different from what was thought at the time. As a result, no marsh vegetation has been able to develop and the piece remains just as “bare” as it was initially.

Facts & Figures.

• Design
  Joost van Hezewijk

• District
  Corpus den Hoorn, Hoornse Meer, Piccardthof

• Year of creation
  1992

• Art type
  Freestanding sculpture, Land art

• Material
  Concrete, Water, Steel, Metal, Trees

• Dimensions
  h ca. 14,00 m