About bridges

The more than life-sized sculpture by Henk Visch is a bronze figure of a man who stretches forward while resting on his fingertips, providing the pose with tension. Visch’s sculptures are not easy to interpret. They have poetic beauty and invite personal interpretations. His works are mainly characterised by mysteriousness, which is enhanced even more by the titles, as in this case.  Secret Life in a Public Body  refers to ‘a secret life’, but does Visch’s public body refer to his sculpture or its location? And what exactly are these secrets? The work of art was in the Westerhaven underground car park for five years where it took the place of exactly one parking space. It was in striking contrast with the glossy vehicles. On 31 March 2009 it was relocated to the square of the Voormalig Klein Poortje at the Oosterhaven.

Some things do not catch the eye until the sun shines, such as in the case of this work by Saar Oosterhof. She applied rhinestones in irregular distances from one another in the Pelsterstraat pavement. The stones only shine when they catch a ray of sun. The built-in holograms provide the stones with depth and their shape changes with every movement. Each stone was handmade by the artist from a cast mixture of resin, colour pigments and glitter. The rhinestones mark the place of a former Groningen town rampart.

Bus stops involve people waiting, which makes them a perfect location for a work of art. In the Oosterstraat a news ticker has been installed between two stainless steel columns. Instead of passenger information, texts are displayed about travelling, buses, and heart and lungs. The texts were written by author Jacques Brooijmans and most of them are poetic or philosophical.  In the Oosterstraat is a transparent synthetic heart in neon light above the columns. In the Gelkingestraat, that runs parallel to the Oosterstraat, lungs are placed above the columns. The organs refer to the centre and periphery of the city. When you enter the city by bus, you first pass the red heart, a symbol for the centre and the dynamic liveliness surrounding it. When leaving the city via the Gelkingestraat, buses pass the green lungs that refer to the tranquillity and space in the suburbs.

Ons Blauwe Hart (Our Blue Heart) is a work of art that provides access to much more art. Artist Erwin Stienstra has hidden a large number of QR codes in the patterns of the giant Dutch tile tableau. Scanning these codes with a telephone provides information about various topics concerning Groningen city centre, such as poems by city poet Stefan Nieuwenhuis in addition to portraits of Groningen residents that the OOG TV broadcasting station recorded in the Gelkingestraat; historic stories and ‘just’ a list of current places of interest. The digital work or art between the old-Dutch looking tiled wall is constantly changing because it is continuously updated with new information.

Artist Willem Valk applied tongues of fire and a crystal shape on this bronze commemorative tablet that symbolise the text on the bronze plate: ‘Toen rees uit oorlog en vuur / het helder kristal van de vrede’. (Then, from war and fire/rose the clear crystal of peace.) The text refers to the fierce battle that was involved in the liberation of the city of Groningen by the Canadian armed forces. On 13 April 1945 they entered the city, after which the disastrous battles for the Grote Markt took place. Many historic buildings went up in flames and the heart of the city was mutilated by shellfire. On Monday 16 April the Canadians surrounded and closed off the city centre and the last resistance broke.

Visitors entering the city of Groningen via the main railway station immediately make their acquaintance with a typical Groningen work of art: the Peerd van Ome Loeks (Uncle Loek’s horse), created in 1959 by artist Jan de Baat and located in the centre of the station square. Rumour has it that the sculpture was created in memory of the racehorse of a Lucas (Loeks) van Hemmen, a riding-master and owner of De Slingerij pub and livery stable in Groningen. His horse died in 1910 and when the horse butcher came to collect it, some boys were singing: ‘Uncle Loek’s horse is dead’. This became a well-known Groningen folk song. Other sources, however, state that the song is based on a German student song.

Groningen has its very own holiday: Bommen Berend (Bombing Berend). This day is all about commemorating the battle of Groningen in 1672 when commander-in-chief Carl von Rabenhaupt defended the city against the invasion of the bishop of Münster (Bombing Berend). Over 20,000 of his soldiers besieged the city from the south, in the area where currently the Rabenhauptstraat and the Kempkensberg are located. The invasion lasted for weeks and cost the lives of about 4,600 soldiers from the Münster-Cologne army and about 100 residents. Groningen was liberated on 28 August, and Bommen Berend is still celebrated every year on this date. The green copper ball in this monument symbolises a cannonball and the rusty surface of the tablet refers to the passing of time. The brass letters read the following: ‘Groningen Constant, Behoudt van ’t Landt’ (Groningen perseverant, retaining of the land). This sentence was on one of the emergency coins that were minted during the siege of Groningen. The division in the tablet symbolises the city and its environs. Large parts of the Ommelanden – the Groningen countryside – were flooded to defend the city.