Water works.

In 2013 Zaandam celebrated The Russian Year. Tsar Peter had visited Zaandam in the past to learn the latest gadgets from shipbuilding. An important event for this city. Many contacts with Russia resulted from this. A nice reminder of that time is the Tsar Peter House, which is still visited by many visitors, especially from Russia. Very interesting stories are told about him there. Since then Zaandam has a relationship with Russia. These contacts mainly went via trade from the Zaan region via the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to St. Petersburg.

The Foundation Tengel ( a collaboration of artists in Zaandam in the surrounding area) was asked to pay attention to this. A good reason to tender an exhibition. Thinking back to this, it was also a nice memory for me. I had signed up for the working group because of the connection between people, both nationally and internationally, always attracts me. We came out after a short brainstorm. 'Water Works' became the theme. We tried to make contact with the artists association in St. Petersburg in Russia and when that didn't work, we wrote to the galleries in the Netherlands, that had Russian artists in their stock. The works of these Russian artists became a virtual presentation. This was shown on a screen in one of the exhibition rooms, where our artworks actually hung in. The enthusiasm of our artists for this exhibition was so great, that we had to rent a second room (a large factory hall).

Did the "Water Works' theme work? Yes, it worked. The enthusiasm of one pushed the other forward. So a small breeze from the wind is only necessary to push one wave of the other forward and with that, all the water around begins to move.

Margriet van Engelen, 31-12-2019.