Netherlands: Day 19 and 20 - Hidden Art Gallery
Day 19
There a series of light art installations in Utrecht called Trajectum Lumen. The outdoor gallery is hidden throughout the city streets and only turns on at nightfall. Today we decided to go out and walk the whole gallery. After a little bit of trouble finding the start of the path, we were on our way. One of the coolest things about the path is that once you find the start, there's no need to worry about a map. If you watch the street, there are small, glowing, orange arrows every few meters pointing in the direction of the next installation. Just follow the lights.
Annie in the tunnel
One of my favourite installations was this colour-changing tunnel. As you walked through, different shapes and colours would move across the wall and the background colour would morph into different shades. Some of the other great ones included fish that swam across the pavement, old buildings lit up blue from the inside as though they were haunted, and trees that lit up and whistled a song as you walked through them.
Outside of the Dom, designs that looked like stained glass windows were projected across the cobblestones. So clearly we had to take pictures.
The most interesting thing was finding so many displays hidden in plain sight; around a corner, reflecting off of the canals or in the window of a building. It made the experience feel like a secret, where you were discovering each piece for the first time. It was an insanely fun night of running through the streets of Utrecht and feeling as though, maybe, the art installations were lit up just for you.
Day 20
Today, after work we went to DomUnder. It's like a museum exhibit under the Dom of artifacts and information about when the city of Utrecht was a Roman castellum. The tunnels were full of old artifacts from different eras of the city. It was an interesting tour, but very short. Afterwards we had lots of time to walk around for a bit and go home to read (I finished the book I brought from home!). We also found a really cool furniture and design shop with a fan that looks like it was stolen from a modern art museum and some 2D metal candlestick holders. Great for when you want to walk around your house like Lady Macbeth at night, but you still want to make sure it matches your ~look~.
- Tiana Daniella
