M HKA Ensembles

Drawing, 745 x 110 cm.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. BK005513).

The work For a new City is closely related to the piece Scheldt Garden (Scheldetuin), made in 1987 on Antwerp’s Cockerillkaai, nearby the M HKA. The ‘garden’ consists of an octagonal ‘pit’, meant as a quiet place to sit, surrounded by trees. The pit is illustrated in these drawings. The spiral that has the eight-sided sitting space as its center and along which rows of trees are planted in the Scheldt Garden, is also mapped out in an analytical manner. However, For a new City is (at least as seems from the plans presented) a much more extensive project than the already-realized Scheldt Garden. The spaces of For a new City are polyvalent, open to any approach. Both the interpretation of the distinct parts as well as their mutual relationships and the manner that the visitor may choose to combine them, are (intentionally) not further explained by artist Maria Nordman; “The new city will eventually be an open city.” The relationship of this work to Scheldt Garden as well as its immaterial character - as suggested by the transparency of the supporting surface (tracing paper) and the nature of its presentation - point to the programmatic sense inherent to For a new City. From the title, it is also apparent that a certain utopian vision is at this work’s basis.