Rabenhauptstraat monument

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.

This voluptuous woman with distinctive ultra-long lashes strides down the stairs of the Cascade complex at the Emmasingel. The sculpture was created by Silvia B. and placed here in 2004. Over eight metres high and seemingly an example of beauty, upon closer inspection it becomes clear that deficiencies are hidden behind this exterior.

Waiting need not be boring. It can also be a good time to quietly look around, think things over or check your mobile phone for new messages. Graphic designer Peter de Kan realised a work of art below the Oosterbrug for people coming from the city centre who have to wait for the bridge. He applied the poem ‘Gestadige beweging’ by Werkman under the bridge, the aluminium letters of which hang from one point and gently sway when the bridge opens. Werkman is known mostly from his paintings and printed matter and less from his literary work. His sound poems are light and playful and are about sounds more than content. He combined existing words and English and French words into some kind of mumbo jumbo, as a result of which people waiting always see and recognise something else under the bridge, no matter how often they have to wait…

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.

The relationship between surface and spaces plays an important role in the work by Danish artist Per Kirkeby, and this also applies to this untitled work at the Emmasingel. The work consists of two rows of six columns connected crosswise as well as lengthwise using arch constructions. Wall surfaces are applied between some of the columns in such a way that a wall is positioned opposite every opening, resulting in a spatial line pattern of open and closed sections and changing light and shadow.

‘Stap’ (Step) is the larger than life-sized and extremely stylised body of a young girl who is hardly awakened and anonymous because of her missing head, arms and hands. She is standing straight and proud. Academy teacher Peter Stut created the bluestone pedestal that is reminiscent of a catwalk. The posture and stylised representation are characteristic of the sculptures by Siepman van den Berg, who is predominantly interested in the patterns of the human body and the abstraction that results when individual features are omitted.

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.

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.