RIVER DEEP

River Deep – splendour and power of the river

In the miraculous landscape of the Lek River, LekArt 2022 River Deep presents contemporary site-specific artwork from visual art, performance art, installation art, theatre and lens-based photography and film. River Deep invites you to delve into the natural power of the river. The Lek River – a branche of the Rijn River – characterizes the landscape around Culemborg and, as a pars-pro-toto, it also characterizes the delta landscape of The Netherlands.

Every work of River Deep highlights the splendour and power of the river and how people have dealt with the river in the past and the present. As a visitor of LekArt 2022, you can see and experience the artwork on foot, boat, bike or a combination of these, in an order you can decide for yourself.
For those who want to be taken along, there is a route along the artworks within four motives:

• The dike (junction with the river)|
• The watcher (alertness after river flooding)
• The towpath (resuscitation of the famous ‘riviergezicht’ (river view) painting artwork)
• The stream (being open to the splendour and power of the river).

This order represents the evolution of control over nature to a more modest attitude and new openness. This is what River Deep is all about.

Culemborg and LekArt 2022 River Deep are located in the centre of the Netherlands at a crossroads of logistical lines: the Lek River, the Amsterdam-Rhine canal, the railway and the arterial roads A2 and A27. In addition, there is the Dutch Waterline and the former Roman Limes along the river lines, where a solid junction with the water was constructed.

However, climate change, heavy rain, the evacuation of residents near the river in 1995 and the recent floods of 2021 startled us. We need to re-examine the dynamics of the river and only a deep understanding of the flowing water can help us to live together with the water. Now that worldwide awareness about our dominance over nature and the consequences of that (pollution, damage, etcetera) is finally here, artists inspire people to take a more humble role, in which we are part of nature, or even a subordinate of nature.

River Deep presents artists that are selected from Culemborg and other regions. River Deep brings together starting talent, recently graduated from art academies, and known and established artists. Through various visual art media, the visitors of River Deep will be made aware of the splendour and influence of the river. This will be done through the different cultures of the Netherlands and the idea of ‘shared land’, which has been a motto of LekArt since 2016.

LekArt festival 2022 River Deep will take place in friendly contact and interaction with the worldwide Land/Water and the Visual Arts network for artists, curators and researchers, centred at Plymouth University (United Kingdom).