Pop Up Bubbles, a large-scale site-specific artwork by Lebanese multidisciplinary artist Nadim Karam, has been chosen by Erasmus MC to be placed in front of its main entrance at Dr. Molewaterplein, the new building of the university medical center, opened in 2018.
The seven-and-a-half-meter sculpture was selected by the art committee of Erasmus MC amongst sixteen proposals submitted through an open call. “Karam’s artwork is inspiring, playful and fits well into the architectural environment,” says Lex Burdorf, chairman of the art committee.
The artwork that is scheduled to be installed in late 2022/early 2023, consists of twenty polished stainless steel “bubbles”, seemingly haphazardly stacked to a height of seven and a half meters. Each bubble encloses elements of Karam’s lexicon of 1001 shapes, the visual language at the core of his artistic practice, which he uses to express diversity and engage with the context. Pop Up Bubbles has been developed in response to the community of users and their interaction with the urban and architectural environment. The brushed and polished stainless steel of the work both integrates and reflects the surroundings. The whimsical elements within the circular bubbles are an open invitation to interpretation; they are the beginning of a narrative for the community to continue.
“Pop Up Bubbles is an expression of sensory abundance of stories and ideas, encapsulated in ascending bubbles. It is a metaphor for constructing spaces for experiences through a work that recalls the child’s play of bubble blowing. Pop Up is an effervescence of urban reveries. It is a vibrant dream in the city- the anticipation of things you haven’t thought of yet.” Nadim Karam.