The red secret

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Hanzeplein 1
9713 GZ Groningen
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There is no way you can miss this work of art at the Universitair Medisch Centrum hospital square which comprises nine rough broken fragments …

There is no way you can miss this work of art at the Universitair Medisch Centrum hospital square which comprises nine rough broken fragments surrounding a smoothly polished granite sculpture. The polished sculpture slightly resembles a head and consists of ninety stacked blocks of red granite. The stack results in a pattern of lines that seem to refer to the thinking process of human beings and the complex network of the brain. According to artist Sigurdur Gudmundsson, the Swedish red granite used to create the work is in keeping with the colour of Groningen. In the 1960s the artist lived in Zandeweer, a small village in the north of the province of Groningen, and Gudmondsson’s colour experience is based on the typical redness of the older buildings in the Groningen villages and cities. The bricks received their characteristic red colour because the fatty sea clay – the raw material for the Groningen brick manufacturing – is ferriferous.