André Dekker/ Observatorium
artistic research - environment - installation - public space - sculpture
Andre Dekker is a visual artist and author of art in public spaces. He is the founder of Observatorium (1997, Rotterdam), a partnership of the artists Geert van de Camp, Andre Dekker, Ruud Reutelingsperger and Lieven Poutsma. Through iconic architectural works of art and participation processes, they grant new meanings and appropriate use to squares, parks, industrial estates or urban wildernesses in transformation.
The public artwork is a hospitable place that stimulates the imagination, offers reflection on the environment and forms a building block for commonality. The symbolic effect goes hand in hand with the unprescribed use of the image or the place, where an opportunity for seclusion and reflection is offered to sharpen the view of the world around us. The oeuvre is characterized by the paradoxes of poetic / robust and iconic / hospitable; always embedded in urban or landscape area development and in partnership with governments and private persons who have the say.