The public art sculpture MENS VAN WATER is designed for the head office of the Amsterdam water company. The water artwork consists of a large sculpture outside near the entrance of the building and several large photo prints which are hung in the three corridors behind the glass facade of the building.
Outside on the steps at the entrance stands an eight-meter-tall sculpture of a man which is entirely made up of 150 stacked circles of copper water pipe. The 150 copper circles, which have a combined length of nearly 700 meters, form the contour line of the human figure and symbolize the 150th anniversary of the Amsterdam water company.
Water comes out at the top of the human figure and flows downwards along the sculpture. In wintertime when the water freezes, the entire sculpture is covered with ice.
The nine life-sized photo panels inside the building portray employees who have been soaked with water, the material with which they work daily. They are shown in their work clothes, still dripping with water, thus presenting the different facets of the water company and giving it a personal face.
