Souvenir, edition of 5, 2021
Water From The Same Source, edition of 20, 2021

After diving in the world of water with Inside Poolside at Hotel Maria Kapel, artist Rik Dijkhuizen developed two editions that are both a homage and a further exploration of the (speculative) properties of water, collective embodiment and wellbeing. Souvenir is a miniature version of the pool and serve as a reminder of the joyful poolside memories we made last summer. The medication-like jars Water From The Same Source offer a dose of positive poolside memories and contain a piece of PVC liner (9×12 cm) and chlorinated water (150 ml), collected from the pool around which we came together to be like water.

The installation Inside Poolside was a generous attempt at offering an oasis for wellbeing and a temporal escape from a world flooded with crises, viruses, inequality, discontent and the mental challenges that surface from it. Now, with the pool gone, the editions serve as a physical testimony and a reminder that we are watery bodies – that we need to collectively build watery communities and places where we can retire, relax and care for ourselves and each other. Providing space, both physically and mentally, that offers a (temporal) relieve from the challenges we are facing in a society that is deeply individualistic, public, hostile and performance-driven, has become increasingly necessary in these impetuous times.

Souvenir is a small-scale version of the pool Inside Poolside at Hotel Maria Kapel and an invitation to reflect and converse about water and wellbeing. It takes us (back) to moments of joy and thinks about collective embodiment and wellbeing; where the good is shared, and the bad can be overcome. Like the souvenirs we take home from our holidays, this pool is a tangible, positive memory we like to muse back to – but also a reminder for the necessity of providing more space for wellbeing. This edition is 14×17 cm and handcrafted from oak, polyester coating, PVC liner, polyester resin and steel.

Water From The Same Source is an invitation to build durable infrastructures of continuous care, but it also reflects on health and wellbeing as an industry. Apart from a playful yet deliberate nod to the idea of a daily dose of positive poolside memories, the jars question the driving forces behind pharmaceutical businesses and normative institutions in the medical world. These industries make people dependent on medication, since most research focuses on battling symptoms instead of finding a cure, if finding a medical cure is really at the root of the problem. Whereas diagnosis is normative, our public health system increasingly privatised, illnesses capitalised and financial profit at the core of the business of pharmaceutical companies, we seem to forget to provide freely accessible and structural care for all bodies.