Artist Jasper Niens, working and living in Rotterdam, is a true builder. He makes installations in which the audience clearly has a role to play. Although Niens works as an architect, with the same methods and materials, the audience’s experience of a public space transcends the functional significance. His works are characterised by architectural adjustments to a public space, which bring about surprising confrontations: between the spectator and his or her surroundings but also between spectators themselves. Niens, for example, made the work ‘5 Rooms’ for NADA Miami Beach (2009), existing of five empty rooms interconnected by doors. None of the spaces had a specific function and it was left to the visitors to find their way through the rooms. During Festival The World of Witte de With, Jasper Niens will make us more aware of our Rotterdam surroundings with his impressive and charming installation.
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