Nacht Tekening

Krijn de Koning, who started out drawing, questioned whether you can create a new image with existing lines of light. He took the iconic shape of the Skinny Bridge – the four arches on either side of the middle passage and the lines of the drawbridge – mixed them up and placed them back on the bridge. By accentuating the forms of the bridge, drawing lines of light and erasing others, De Koning gives the Skinny Bridge a whole new look.

The artwork has two faces: during the day, the image of Amsterdam’s most famous bridge remains intact, but when night falls and the lights turn on, it is completely disrupted. The monumental light drawing distorts, distances, and comments on the existing image of the bridge as we know it.

Nacht Tekening fits in with Krijn de Koning’s series of large site-specific (and often temporary) interventions and works in the public space. Working with light was new for De Koning, as was the fact that the artwork could only be seen at night. The fact that the Skinny Bridge was such an important tourist attraction in Amsterdam was also a new experience for, but it was what drew him to create an intervention at this exact spot.