This text begins at dusk. At one of the longest facades in Amsterdam, one that at first glance reveals little of itself. The Witte de Withstraat feels endless, largely due to the constantly repeating brick design by Arend Jan Westerman, in the style of the Amsterdam School. As darkness falls and the details of daytime life fade into the background, the street becomes a continuous line — one that cyclists and drivers alike tend to pass through without slowing down.
Once night sets in, an entirely different rhythm becomes visible. A softer rhythm, one that makes you pause. From the bay windows of the apartments — behind which the stairwells once lay — a light moves. From top to bottom and back again; not once, but from 23 bay windows. Each time slightly different, a shifting pattern stretches across the entire facade. The anonymous exterior transforms into an environment where the interior world reaches outward, making it tangible that different lives are unfolding behind all these walls.
Gabriel Lester realised this artwork, Elevating Witte de With, in 2007. The light still breathes. It doesn’t demand attention, but transforms its surroundings in a subtle way. Once you have seen it, it greets you again and again.
Elevating Witte de With shows what art in public space can also be.
SNEAKPEEK from @radna’s chapter on unusual forms and materials in You are here.
