The Individual Parallel – Bilderberg Utopia (2014)

The Artwork

On 23 September 2014, Mayor Aboutaleb unveiled The Individual Parallel – Bilderberg Utopia by adding the final dot to a pattern covering the entire facade of the Park Hotel. With the unveiling of this artwork by Willem Oorebeek, the hotel sealed the completion of a major transformation of the first floor. The Individual Parallel – Bilderberg Utopia is a monumental artwork formed by a grid of dots that subtly light up in the dark. The dots are placed in the reading direction on the plane. A full dot runs along the left and top edges while open line ends become visible on the right and bottom. An important game rule was that no cut-off dots could be used, as they would evoke a reference to the outside. Thus, window openings are cut out of the grid with the omission of all intersected dots, creating a striking ragged opening. Around the letters of the Bilderberg Park Hotel, this creates an unevenness in the confrontation of the grid with the letters of the logo.

Oorebeek says of his work, “In my work, which deals with perception, the dot grid is an abstraction, capable of definition, and the exact opposite of the image. However, when the grid of dots is applied to something, it itself becomes image and merges with the plane on which it is applied, as definition. Strictly speaking, what we perceive then becomes an image of SELF. So represented as a graphic definition of the facade of the hotel, the grid forms an image of the hotel itself.”