Graduation project
For A Kin-Aesthetics
Soph Boobyer
Visitors to the Van Abbemuseum fill bronze vessels with water from the river outside, sensorially experiencing the institution’s reliance on water.
How is water invited into an art institution? Soph Boobyer inquired into the discourses mediated by the differing waters residing with museums. Situating the research in the relationship between the Dommel River and the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, a research film exposes the correlation between the museum’s opening hours and building with the river's hydrology. Bronze vessels were designed, inviting visitors to bring water from the river inside the museum. The tactile traces of this gesture expand the registers of water bodies beyond only 'river' or 'plumbing', to understand water as a lively maker of kin. Through this alternative wayfinding, the museum becomes embodied as a constituent of water.