Panamarenko - TAHAMA Nova Zemblaya - Sold

TAHAMA Novaya Zemlya, 2004 Published by Ronny van de Velde

Panamarenko has always wanted to make a compact submersible that chooses the open water and defies the storm. After all, it is his intention to sail to the High North. Yet it takes until the mid-1990s before he starts construction. One day when he sees a beautiful, green-painted 17 kW diesel engine for sale in the display case of a shop in the port of Antwerp, he knows that he has found the perfect drive for his submarine. The shape of the submarine that Panamarenko wants to build around the engine originates from an earlier work, in particular his Whale of 1967: "I had once made a model for a whale, and then I already thought: that is actually a cumbersome , square tank in which you can easily stand up, a whale like that That would be good for a submarine, because I don't want a large model, but one in which you can stand up, because at sea it takes too long if you have to go all the time sit …" - Panamarenko
"My mother didn't like that submarine and she said: 'Can't you clean anything anymore?' And I said: 'but this is something beautiful!', 'No', she said, 'no one thinks that's beautiful', to which I said: 'The whole world thinks that's beautiful', and she: 'Yes, because they don't think otherwise. to dare!' (roaring laughter)... You can't invent a joke like that, can you?!"