Commissioned by the Government Buildings Agency for Nieuw-Vosseveld Penitentiary, Vught (nl)
A swimming pool. When Jeroen Doorenweerd was asked to create a work of art for a prison in Vught, that was his answer. The idea of a swimming pool in a high-security penitentiary stirred up such controversy that ultimately, even though the pool was built, the authorities initially prohibited its use. Later on, this ban was lifted. Before developing and carrying out this idea, Doorenweerd began with a crucial period of strategic reflection. He had himself locked up, so that he could find out what it was like to be a prisoner. While researching the penitentiary and its environs, he learned there was a recreation area nearby. A greater contrast seemed almost unimaginable. This was the origin of Doorenweerd’s plan to create a place through his art where a prisoner could, just for a moment, be free. A place ‘where you can see the wind blowing, the sun shining and the clouds drifting by’. But freedom is a prospect that you cannot hold out to long-term prisoners. Instead, Doorenweerd intended to create a different sort of panorama, ‘a kind of oasis for the senses, where for a moment the ever-present architecture and the straitjacket of society can-not be seen or felt’. By his own account, it was the myth of the artist that made it possible for him to break into the hermetically sealed prison system. By emphasizing the value of art to some parties, and the opportunity for additional physical exercise to others, he managed to win acceptance of his plan. Once the pool was built, it transcended the different meanings that he had created in interaction with each of the parties involved. As he notes: ‘All my work contains this duality that forces people to observe more carefully.’ In fact, the outdoor swimming pool is in use. But the power of the pool as a work of art lies chiefly in its visual qualities: a shimmering blue surface under a cloudless sky and everything that this evokes, the play of light on the water on a sunny day and the sounds that accompany it, the association with joy. It was this radiant idea that Doorenweerd decided to introduce into a thoroughly closed-off, controlled environment, where personal freedom had to be kept to a minimum. The pool stands out, both among the other works of art in Vught and within Doorenweerd’s oeuvre. The similarities to the rest of his work lie in his approach: the way he developed an idea from the situation and then took on the system to make sure it was put into action. (Mariska van den Berg)