Imagination as a Building Block of the City: Art by Jelmer Konjo at EDGE Coolsingel

Artwork invites passers-by to look differently at a city in transition

In the fourth round of the EDGE Coolsingel Artist Competition: Show me your heart, artist Jelmer Konjo (1993) presents an installation that transforms the construction site in the heart of Rotterdam into a colorful playground.

Where we normally associate a construction site with shades of grey and raw materials, he instead brings color, playfulness and wonder. Using reclaimed wood and leftover materials, Jelmer shows that even in a city in constant transition, there is room for imagination.

It is an ode to the childlike way of seeing that we often lose, yet urgently need in a city that is never finished.

The city and imagination

For Jelmer Konjo, Rotterdam is a city that never stands still. Everywhere, buildings are going up, being renewed and being demolished, a place in continuous transition. While most people take the rhythm of construction for granted, Konjo sees an opportunity: an invitation to look again. A chance to imagine. His work responds to the city's constant movement and emphasizes what arises in the space between demolition and renewal.

Playfulness as a counterbalance

For his installation, he collected wood and paint from containers and festival storage sites, but reusing material is only the starting point. More important is what he does with it: loosening the rigid lines of the construction site and introducing movement, color and humor. With his colourful and naïve visual language, Jelmer invites passers-by to look differently at the changes around them – and to let imagination run free, even if only for a moment.

Imagination may well be our most important building block. We often lose it once we become adults, but it’s exactly that playful perspective we need in a city that is never finished.” says Jelmer.