Buoyants - Mike Rijnierse

Site specific for Grote Kerk Veere, Zeeland
From 4th September to 26th October, 2025 and from April to May 2026.

Buoyants, a large scale project at the Grote Kerk Veere. This site specific piece that I’ve been developing with my beloved Ludmila Rodrigues combines a time travel vision on this monumental church in Zeeland. The work comprises a kinetic sculpture, spatial sounds, and tactile stations on seating islands, affording a vertical perspective.

Invited as ‘Kerkmeester’ (church masters), we studied the entanglement of Zeeland; its inhabitants, human and other-than-human, with water. Thinking about water as a continuum; through the tides, floods and the flow of time.
We looked into the far-past, our oceanic beginnings, as well as into the future, observing how human activity impacts climate, causing the rise of sea level.

Buoyants evokes the state of floating, lightly, freely, upon water. Though life began in the depths of ancient seas, our bodies have long since adapted to the solidity of land. Yet now, as the oceans rise once more, we may find ourselves called to transform again, to meet a shifting world. In English, ‘buoyant’ also carries a brighter meaning: a spirit that is cheerful, resilient, and full of hope. With this dual essence, we offer a proposition—a more hopeful vision of what lies ahead.

For this work, we had the pleasure of collaborating with sonic sorceress Ji Youn Kang, who has crafted a vertical soundscape that transforms the space into an immersive journey. The kinetic installation has been engineered by multi-talent Rob Bothof, who invented the ingenious pulley system that choreographs the liquid motion of the hanging sculpture.

Concept: Ludmila Rodrigues & Mike Rijnierse
Soundscape: Ji Youn Kang
Motion engineering: Rob Bothof
3D rendering: Sofia Chionidou
Sound engineering: Dario Giustarini
Seamstress: Tessa Bekker
Wood work: Bas de Boer
Intern: Norah van Lith

With thanks to the Mondriaan Fund, het Cultuurfonds, Provincie Zeeland, Gemeente Veere, Familiefonds Hurgronje, Hoogwerkt, AutoHopper, the Embassy of Brazil, Suzanna de Sitter, Louis Braddock Clarke, Caro Verbeek, and Natasja van Kampen.

We could not be more thankful for the trust of the Grote Kerk and CBK Zeeland.