Currently on display in the Centraal Museum in Utrecht is a bright blue arched sculptural installation designed by the Amsterdam based practice of Rietveld Landscape. Made of foam, the vast floor to ceiling piece dominates and alters the energy of the space, a disused chapel within what was once a monastery, an ideal space in which to exhibit this impressive piece, as the ecclesiastical heritage of the location is mirrored by the stained glass window reference of the installation.
Pretty Vacant also claims a connection to a previous installation by the practice, Vacant NL, exhibited at the 2010 Venice Art Biennale, a social comment on the potential of 10.000 vacant government owned spaces in the Netherlands. Vacant NL constituted a number of cut out foam buildings, suspended as a model city with suggested uses to improve the quality of life through additional facilities for the man in the street. Pretty Vacant can be viewed as the negative of the previous piece as on closer inspection, the voids are in fact form the shapes of architectural structures.
The museum intends to acquire more work of this type, a merging of art, design and architecture and as such, Pretty Vacant will remain in place until January 31st, 2014, where it will perform the role of a stunning backdrop to a series of temporary exhibitions, curated from the Museum’s extensive archives.
