A 16M COMMEMORATION (2006)
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2006 / installation / 1600 × 300 × 150 cm / various materials
The installation is a commemoration of an exploration in a tunnel found by the artist during one of his excursions to Miljet, Croatia.
Viewers who want to enter the installation are advised to put on rubber boots and walk 16 metres – the distance of the artist’s original exploration – through the water-filled space to get to the final room in the back.
In 2008 Van Wolputte made a second work inspired by this tunnel, Second Visit, which documents a second visit to the location to finally get further inside than the original 16 metres.
‘After entering the tunnel and making it inside to about 16 metres, I decided to turn back around and leave the tunnel. Once back home I was frustrated about not having gone in further and started fantasizing about what I would have found if I had gone further. That is why I made this work, to fulfill my fantasy of what lay further in.’ PVW
‘After entering the tunnel and making it inside to about 16 metres, I decided to turn back around and leave the tunnel. Once back home I was frustrated about not having gone in further and started fantasizing about what I would have found if I had gone further. That is why I made this work, to fulfill my fantasy of what lay further in.’ PVW