Rhinestones

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.

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…

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.

‘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.

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.

When Vroom & Dreesman (V&D) opened its doors in 1958, the management of the department store presented this statue to the city of Groningen. Bro Bro Brille was created by Gunnar Westman, based on a Danish children’s song. ‘Bro Bro Brille’ means Bridge Bridge Brille, a children’s game. Westman’s sculpture has a closed shape and was made from a cylinder-shaped piece of granite from an old roller the basic shape of which can still be clearly seen. The movements the sculptures make – dancing in a circle – seems to be adapted to the shape of the material.

Until the construction of the motorway and the Emma viaduct in the 1960s the Herebrug was one of the main entrance roads to the city, which made the Herebrug (1879) an important bridge.  During the liberation in April 1945 the bridge suffered immense damage, and a new one was built in 1952. It was constructed from concrete surrounded by natural stones and bricks. The Groningen coat of arms – a two-headed eagle – was incorporated into the handrail and the bridgeman’s house. In addition, artist Wladimir de Vries was asked to create a work of art for the bridge, resulting in a young woman carrying ears of corn with a lying calf at her feet. The work symbolises the alliance between the city and its surrounding area.