Cocky Eek

Landing Sites

Landing Sites is a rite of passage which stages our contemporary perception in which we are part of and separate from our natural environment. In this site-specific parcours developed on the ephemeral and intertidal zone of the Zandmotor situated on the dutch coastline, Eek created an intense sensorial experience in which our inner landscape converges with the landscape that surrounds us. 

concept Cocky Eek | research Cocky Eek, Matthijs Munnik, Geartsje van der Zee | dramaturge advice Boukje Schweigman | production Linda Witpaard | crew Rachel Schuit, Hannegijs Jonker, Ben Terwell, Florencia Resnik, Anne van Rij, Eefje Aerts, Theun Karelse | Landing Sites is a co-production of Schweigman&, Oerol and Satellietgroep, financially supported by Stroom Den Haag.

Presented at:
– 9-18 june 2017, Oerol Festival – Terschelling Island, NL
– 17 September, De Zandmotor, Ter Heijde, NL , 2017 satelietgroep 

The publication of Landing Sites [47 pg], includes an introduction by Art/chitect Renske Maria van Dam, provides an insight in the making process of the project and can be free downloaded via the site of Schweigman&: Landing Sites publication 

the Landing Sites blog gives an overview of the research trajectory

Are we turning around the sea or
is the sea turning around us?

…’When you end up on the high tide line on a windless summer day after Landing Sites and are totally overwhelmed by the horizontality of your field of vision, Eek has also devised something there. She has designed different glasses for every type of weather. When the wind attracts Landing Sites gives a completely different experience than on this windless summer day. With the wind-goggles on you stay, no matter how far you turn around your own axis, you always see the sea while the horizon ‘turns with the wind’. And then your world is literally upside down.
In this work she designed different ‘glasses’ and ‘wearables’ for every type of weather. When the wind attracts Landing Sites gives a completely different experience than on a windless summer day.’

excerpt from the Landing Sites publication by Renske Maria van Dam


some audience written reactions:
– ‘Out of time and space. Therefore all time. And space.’

– ‘The sea is blue, did you ever notice? Blue through sound’ 

– ‘Am I alone?’

– ‘It took a while before I knew where my feet were.’

– ‘See nature to look at us !!’

– ‘How straight ahead can be so beautiful.’

– ‘Especially in the here and now. I do not succeed that often.’

– ‘Delicious, hearing and feeling much more intense than normal. Was almost mediative. Nothing vague, just nice and also laughing, while walking on the shells.’

– ‘Very special, hanging, wind, water, hills and nothing else. Everyone who experiences this now looks differently against the beach. Top! Many thanks.’

– ‘… I did experience moving through space in a very peculiar way. Like in ‘Chinese Baseball’. When the ball is in the air you can move the bases. And then at one point I completely coincided with ‘space’, like it collapsed on and in me. Implosion and tranquility. Something like resetting the senses….’ Frank Heckman – 20 may 2017