Geometry of life

When they met again a few years ago, Koumans was impressed by his art. ‘Tim works on the basis of hidden geometry. That is the geometry of life, the mathematical proportions that determine everything in nature. It is also called sacred geometry. Think of a severed nautilus shell, which is mathematically perfect. But you also see it in crystals.’

With one dolphin, made of wood, Boin slowly transforms the natural shape of the marine mammal into geometric planes. The other dolphin is entirely made of flat glass in stainless steel. It’s hand polished. Every piece of glass in it consists of layers with a nanocoating through which they reflect. Tim plays with the light.’ His meeting with Tim Boin was one of the reasons to rearrange his life, says Koumans. ‘I was always on the road. When the wind blew, I wanted to surf, but I didn’t have time for it. But hey, I was free, right? Apparently I wasn’t.’

Koumans divested most of his businesses, leaving eight smaller ones, mainly in the health sector. Now he only wants to do things he wants to jump out of bed for in the morning. He wants to build the proverbial huts. A ‘business hippie’ his family members call him. Two days a week he can still be found in the office, the rest of the time he fills up effortlessly. He pours his homemade elderflower lemonade. ‘You have to pick the flowers just after the sun has risen,’ he says. He also distils his own eau de vie, from the fruit that the birds have left hanging in his top fruit trees. And he gives master classes. ‘Everywhere in business it’s all about growth. I think and live from nature, and there growth only makes sense when it flourishes. Nobody finds the green stem interesting, only when it becomes a daffodil or a tulip does it acquire identity’. With his Grow and Flourish Foundation he helps organizations to define the flourishing and subsequent period of contemplation. To then, consciously, enter a period of growth again. In the meantime Koumans has started to finance Tim Boin. In December they went together to Art Basel Miami, one of the most important fairs in the world for contemporary art. The dolphin was also there, in another version, as one of the ‘Jewels of the Sea’ that Boin showed there.

Boin also makes work for the public space. Last January and February, a whale, a squirrel, a bee and a polar bear took turns at the entrance to the Central Station in Utrecht and on ‘het Plein’ the main square of The Hague in front of the Parliament buildings, to warn against the pollution of the oceans, deforestation, loss of biodiversity and climate change.

The organiser was Awareness Art. And whose foundation is that? Right, from Koumans. ‘I think art should carry a message more often and should be brought to people much more often.’