Koos Buster makes everyday objects in ceramics in his characteristic ‘wobbly’ style that clearly shows the hand of the maker. With a wink, is Koos in search of the ‘perfect silliness’

For the Amsterdam Ferry Festival, objects and parts of the ferry will be replaced by Koos Buster’s ceramics. Playing with the functional design of the ferry, he allows handmade objects to merge with the environment of the springs, subverting an invisible authority. The design of a red trash can, a security camera or an informational sign are no longer invisible, but stand out because of the contradiction with the clean lines on the ferry and the imperfections of the ceramics.

Down on the deck among the travelers is a Canta XXL made of ceramics. The interior is completely decorated with typical objects such as Ajax flags and nodding figurines, also worked out in ceramics. A monument to this extinct Amsterdam vehicle and the Northerner who likes to drive it. Because of its playful world, after the ferry ride you’ll have to get used to the rigid dullness of the rest of the world. 

During the ferry ride, everyone comes together for a brief moment, no matter where you come from or where you are going. Jeannette Slütter plays with this gathering in her installation that orchestrates moments with performance, photography, sculpture and prose. On the ferry, there are photographs depicting objects whose forms are echoes of functional objects that belong to the boat, but which are now alienated from their function. During the performances, travelers appear with these objects in their hands. Usually a photograph is a documentation of a moment in the past, but during this crossing the photograph foreshadows the appearance of the traveler with the object: a photograph of the future. Katinka van Gorkum adds a layer of text to the installation. In it, the main character is the ferry itself, who tries to entice the travelers to take her on a journey through the objects she experiences as parts of her body. Together, all these elements form a poetic experience of this short crossing.

Carina Ellemers is showing the film IJs over het IJ (Ice Across the River IJ) as a diptych on two inner windows of the ferry between Central Station and the former NDSM wharf in Amsterdam Noord. She investigates the connection between the current Indonesian ice industry and — by means of archive material — the past ice  industry in the Netherlands. Ships built at the NDSM wharf and the IJ river play a central role in this.

IJs over het IJ is part of the Frozen Water project. Carina is working on a full-length film and this is a version that focuses on the location and history of the IJ and the NDSM wharf. It shows how ice production and distribution takes place in and around a small old ice factory near the town of Klaten (central Java, Indonesia). The men of the ice factory seem to be one with their work. In a long sequence of actions, starting at the night when the ice blocks are ‘born’ large and flawless in the factory, until the end of the day, the film shows the men’s calm perseverance as the ice is distributed.

Martin La Roche is creating a massive installation of lonely socks. These socks are disconnected from a system that dictates that you are only worth something next to your other half. But through the artwork Martin creates, these socks take on a new function, far beyond the expectations of the sock’s life cycle. On the ferry, people stand isolated from each other, while for a moment they are part of a collective experience on the water. Even though all these socks are alone, it is clear in this installation that everything may be connected to each other.

Martin’s work is about the stories intrinsic to the objects and discovers a magic in the most everyday things. During the festival, he invites everyone to contribute with lost, single socks that can become part of the art installation on the ferry. In this way, no sock, nor traveler, need be alone.