‘Lisca Bianca’ is the splendid title of an elaborate and ambitious installation that was developed especially for the front room. The young artist Yasmijn Karhof, who has made a number of inflatable works and costumes, has constructed a landscape out of compressed air.
‘Lisca Bianca’ is also the name of a small Italian island which is part of the Aeolian Islands. Aeolian is a geological term for 'rock formed by the wind'.

The installation consists of a great many 'rocks' filled with a continuous flow of compressed air, which together form a desolate coastal landscape. The viewer walks and clambers through the landscape, in this way himself becoming part of the piece. Boulders and stones in various sizes make up a microcosm, almost the transported excerpt of a landscape. It is possible to perceive the installation as both a 3D version of encyclopaedic cross-section drawings and as the trigger for memories of trips to similar rocky beaches. Landscapes where a timeless quiet reigns, as if time has come to a still.

For Karhof, the audience is an essential part of the installation. Together they form a single image. Seen from the door, the landscape first unfolds as a picture postcard or a photograph, a purely mental perception. But the viewer does not want to halt there - after all, the front room is itself a transitional space - and will therefore have to surrender to a physical experience: the far from easy trip over and between the 'soft rock'. In this way, a dialogue develops between the viewer and the possibilities and limitations of the physical context. The visitor becomes a temporary personage in the landscape, influencing the meaning of the installation by his chosen positioning.
This was duly confirmed during the opening of ‘Lisca Bianca’. After some initial hesitancy on the part of the audience, the work finally became a magnificent 'kiddie castle', in part because visitors discovered the large rocks served as excellent launch pads. Many were treated to a 'Sprung aus den Wolken', which brought another exciting aspect of the installation to bear; apart from the afore-mentioned allusions, the installation had a well-appreciated sense of humour. It was simply a great adventure. Not often does an artwork strike such a happy balance between apparently conflicting aspects and meanings. A dazzling, enjoyable sensation, as full as life itself.

'Once the Aeolian islands were many volcanoes.'
'What's the name of this one?'
'this should be Basiluzzo.'
'Basiluzzo... it sounds like the name of a fish.'
'That one there is Lisca Bianca.'
'How boring. Why all this fuss over a swim.'
'Aren't you going ashore?'
'Are you calling these rocks a shore?'
(From; 'l'Avventura' van Michelangelo Antonioni)

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