There's something ironic about writing code to invite the unexpected. For Dutch artist Boris Acket, that’s exactly where things get interesting. His work explores how natural forces like wind, water, light, and sound shape our experience of time and space. With EINDER, he takes this idea to a new scale, bringing a vast, slowly moving canvas into Amsterdam’s Centrale Markthal and letting the world around it help determine what happens next.
Suspended inside the expansive industrial hall, the fabric drifts through the air like a giant sail caught in an invisible wind, rising and folding into new shapes as light moves across its surface. At times, it resembles a rolling wave or a cloud mid-transformation, turning the architecture into a kind of indoor sky. The effect is both grand and strangely calming, inviting visitors to stand back and watch as the installation slowly changes shape above them.
Now open as part of Amsterdam Dance Event’s 30th anniversary, EINDER is a work that never quite sits still. Its fabric moves in sequences informed by weather data from storms somewhere in the world, bringing the logic of weather into the heart of Amsterdam. Air currents, shifting daylight, and changing temperatures can’t be fully predicted, so the work never moves the same way twice, and visitors arriving at different moments will encounter different versions of the installation.
Making something this unpredictable takes careful planning. Using Claude Code, Acket built his own tools for the work. One is a 3D simulation of the installation, built from the hall’s technical drawing, that shows how the fabric responds to air before anything is hung. He drives it from the same software and channels he uses for the real fans and lights. Another controls fabric movement by translating weather data into code that runs the complex instructions for the fan and light systems. Together they give him room to experiment at a scale that would be difficult to test in real life, refining the idea before entering the hall.
Of course, a simulation can only take you so far and acts as only a part of his process. Once the canvas enters the hall, the sunlight shifts, temperatures fluctuate, and the fabric reacts to conditions that are difficult to recreate digitally. Acket can prepare to a degree, but some discoveries only happen on site, when the system meets the space it was built for.
This balance between planning and unpredictability is what makes EINDER so interesting. Code provides a framework, while the changing environment shapes the outcome, allowing Acket to set the process in motion without mapping out every detail in advance. Rather than trying to eliminate uncertainty, he builds a system that leaves room for it, never erasing the influence of the natural world.
Sound and performance introduce another layer to the installation. British producer and composer Djrum has created a bespoke soundscape, which he performed live on October 22 using hybrid acoustic-electronic instruments built from raw and found materials. On October 23 and 24, choreographer and dancer Kianí del Valle will bring her own practice into the space, with movements that directly influence the canvas and introduce the human body as another force shaping its behavior.
EINDER rewards visitors willing to spend time with it, as a few minutes watching the canvas might offer one experience, while returning later reveals an entirely different configuration of movement and light. The work encourages visitors to slow down and notice changes that might otherwise pass unnoticed, creating an experience that feels different with every encounter.
With the ever-evolving advancement of technology, we’re used to it promising greater precision and control, but Acket is interested in what happens when code makes room for the unexpected. With EINDER, he builds the framework, sets the process in motion, and lets air, light, and turbulence take it from there. Sometimes, the cleverest thing you can do is leave a little room for things to get out of hand.
Experience EINDER October 22 through November 1, 2026. Discover more here.