Theo Jansen’s famous wind-powered “strandbeesten” — mechanical beach creatures — have journeyed from the Dutch North Sea coast to art shows in Miami and even made appearances on “The Simpsons.” Now, these remarkable creations have found a permanent home in Delft, a Dutch city renowned for painter Johannes Vermeer and its iconic blue pottery.
The “bones” of these strandbeesten have taken over a former cable factory in Delft, where Jansen has lived for decades. The exhibition, called the Strandbeesten Mortuary, showcases the evolution of these sculptures since 1990, when Jansen first crafted one using plastic pipes and tape. Over the years, his creations have incorporated materials like plastic bottles, wooden planks, cloth, and cardboard.
Jansen describes the strandbeesten as natural historical objects, evolving like living creatures. The exhibition displays an impressive fossil record of these animals, which are mostly made from PVC pipes, marking their life and death cycles.
Marloes Koster, the exhibition organizer for Delft’s Prinsenhof Museum, explained that Jansen’s ultimate ambition is to create a strandbeest that can survive indefinitely. The exhibition features those that didn’t quite make it.
With the Prinsenhof Museum undergoing renovations, the exhibition is part of a series of cultural events held at alternative locations around Delft.
Born near the North Sea, Jansen was inspired by the wind along the Dutch coast and designed his strandbeesten to walk powered by it. Each year, he builds a new model and declares the older one “dead” after summer experiments.
Visitors to the exhibition, many longtime followers of Jansen’s work, appreciated seeing how the strandbeesten have evolved from simple designs to increasingly complex structures. Cor Nonhof, a local visitor, noted how the creatures have developed and grown more sophisticated over time.
Despite the exhibition’s opening, Jansen is eager to return to the beach to continue refining his latest strandbeest creation. “I cannot do anything else,” he said. “And I am very happy with that.”
