As an Italian, Giorgio Andreotta Calò was shocked to find the Oude Kerk so austere and sparsely decorated. Where had all the vibrant color gone? The answer was of course the 16th century Iconofury, which made Amsterdam an officialy Protestant city and resulted in large-scale destruction of imagery and visual language deemed superfluous.

 

This led Calò to create a single gesture. He wanted to bring the single most vibrant color back into the church in full power: the color red. We researched and prototyped countless materials and mechanisms that would allow us to cover the 1600 square meters of window of the Oude Kerk with red filter. With such a large and unique space and the complexities of daylight and changing weather over the five-month exhibition span, there was simply no way to accurately test the final result. But the result was stunning: a constantly changing visual experience that left visitors stunned and in awe. A gesture so simple, yet so visceral; by far my personal favourite at Oude Kerk.