City marking SO6/ Bruchstück für Luigi Nono

In front of the Selwerderhof cemetery great hall is a large sculpture in the round pond. It was created by Hans Ittmann from Amsterdam and is 4.5 metres high. The sculpture consists of five vertical stakes that protrude two dish shapes. The spherical sides of the hollow are turned towards each other and the water spouts up through the stakes. The sculpture has organic shapes that are reminiscent of plants or fungi. The Selwerd cemetery was laid out between 1939-1949 after a design by garden architects L.W. Copijn and J. Vroom Jr. The two great halls from 1949-1951 and 1963-1964 respectively were designed by then public works architect J.H.M. Wilhelm. Today the entire complex is a municipal historic monument.

The Werkman is a monument for Groningen printer and artist Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman, who was killed on 10 April 1945 by accomplices of the SD (German Security Service) shortly before the liberation. The work of art has the shape of a suspension bridge and consists of sixteen stainless steel plates from which figures have been punched. The shapes refer to the templates Werkman often worked with. The row of punched plates that form a bridge was inspired by the rows of newspapers that come from the printing presses. The sculpture is a homage to the artist and printer Werkman. Hans Rikken created ‘De Werkmanbrug’ for the Gallery Art Show in 1995, the year that was proclaimed the ‘Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman year’ by the municipality of Groningen.

This land sculpture was designed by architect and artist Gunnar Daan. He was inspired by Emeritus Professor in biological psychiatry Rudy van den Hoofdakker, who is better known as poet Rutger Kopland. In 1966 Van den Hoofdakker published a thesis about sleep disorders, and Daan distilled the theme of sleep from this for his work or art featuring a sleeping woman, man, dog and cat. The figures are embedded in the slope and surrounded by a stainless steel rim. The steel functions as some kind of low profile (hence its title  Low Profile ) filled with earth.

In 1990 the city of Groningen celebrated its 950 th anniversary and a contemporary city gate was placed at each main entrance road of the city to mark this. Architect Daniel Libeskind developed these city gates. At the Sprikkenburg by the Starkenborghkanaal channel is a city marking created by artist Gunnar Daan; a steel construction with two transparent stainless steel book leaves. These book leaves display the city of Groningen in two perspectives: the interior of the city and its exterior. The interior is displayed in the shape of a Stoa – an arcade – and the exterior in towers that fade into the space.

In the 1970s the narrowing of the gap between art and the public was among artist René de Boer’s main themes. This encouraged him to make appliances of his sculptures instead of merely objects to look at, and these sitting lumps are an example of this. Below the sculpture are swivel casters and nylon slide plates that allow the work to be moved, and because the sculpture hinges in the centre its shape can change. The work of art is therefore also an object to look at, lie on and play with. In 1975 Zitknobbels (Sitting Lumps) was at the Grote Markt for a month after which the municipality of purchased it and placed it in the Paddepoel shopping centre. In the late 1990s the sculpture was moved to the Selwerd shopping centre, and since 2011, the bronze bench is located on the Beren shopping square.

In the centre of the pond in front of the Duisenberg building and the Zernike complex are the contour lines of an immense human figure. The sculpture is six metres high and made from stainless steel. A powerful fountain spouts water up within the contours of the sculpture, as a result of which parts of the figure are hidden from view. The spurt of water reaches above the shoulder before it turns into a hazy spray. The title of the work refers to ‘something that changes and yet stays the same’. The changing same symbolises the research in the Spatial Sciences faculty. According to artists Maree Blok and Bas Lughhart the water from the fountain is the backbone of the human figure and a metaphor for the ability of humans to change themselves and their environment time and time again without losing themselves.

Most fountains look somewhat gloomy if they don’t spout water, but there is always something to see with this fountain even is the water is shut off. And this was exactly what artist Bas Lugthart intended when he was commissioned to make this design. In his design Lugthart uses the blue tube, as well as water and even wind and gravity as his material. Without water spectators see the profile of a face and the figure completes as soon as the fountain starts spouting: the arch formed by the water results in a different hair style with each gust of wind.

Between the school at De Kluiverboom and the Alfa Collega is a work of art called Wereldplek (World place) by Michiel Kluiters, consisting of three large stools that serve as a shelter and each with twelve smaller ones to sit on. The large stools are a wi-fi hotspot, and each of them has its own of four functions: exchanging music, chatting, surfing and reading the latest news. The stools change functions from time to time as a result of which one of the four functions is lost. Pupils have influence on this using a game.

In 1972 Groeisymbool  (symbol of growth) received a place in the pond at the then newly delivered main office of the Rabobank at the Pleiadenlaan. One year later the Rabobank presented the work of art to the municipality of Groningen. The sculpture consists of three high pylons that rise straight from the water and are surrounded by fourteen floe-shaped elements that stick up from the water. A fountain spouts the water up along the pylons after which it splashes on the floes. In the evening underwater lighting illuminates the fountain sculpture in white light. Artist Jacob van der Meij described the work of art as a symbol of the earth bursting with the three polyps rising from the water and the brilliant white lighting at night expressing the primal forces and energy of the earth.

In 1876, this distinctive building was the entry for the world fair in Philadelphia. In those days the building, which was designed as a former Groningen state former Dutch High School, was considered the ultimate example for school building in secondary education. A special element in this design by architect H. Raamakers is the freehand drawing classroom above the hallway. This classroom had a glass ceiling with an extended glass dome above it. The former school was designed around 1869 and is characterised by its monumental Neo-classical architectural style. Striking elements include the three semicircular arches above the entrance and the polygonal observation post lined with wood from which the stars can be observed.

Dutch East India Company Managing Director Jan Albert Sichterman intended to have the most beautiful house built in Groningen, but thought this had failed when it was delivered in 1746. The building was – and is – nonetheless impressive. The Sichterman house’s exterior is richly adorned and its interior was more than impressive, with many paintings by Dutch and Italian masters, expensive services and various art treasures. After he died in 1770, the building was divided into two parts. The balcony above the front door (and from which Sichterman apparently threw coins to the people) is in the Groninger Museum. 

Car parks generally do not stand out because of their atmosphere, but – also thanks to P. Struycken’s illuminations – this does not apply to the car park below the Ossenmarkt square. Using twenty light frames on the floor of the car park, the concrete construction in the centre is spotlit in changing colours. The principle of the colour changes is based on the blend of the colours red, green and blue. As the lights shine more or less intensively, the colours change as they blend. P. Struycken is also known from the stamp on which he portrayed then Queen Beatrix in coloured dots and his design of the colour scheme for the rooms in the Groninger Museum.

These four reed stems were designed by René de Boer, who used an existing well at the location of his design as a starting point: the ENT clinic of the Academisch Ziekenhuis Groningen hospital. The transformed the well into a square pond with a moving reed stem at each side. The four reed stems were made from welded brass. Their exterior is smooth and round while their interior has irregular and organic shapes. The whimsical transition from the round and austere exterior to the organic interior suggests a rupture in the stems. The stalks balance on weathering steel ‘holders’ with two points and move in the wind. In 1987 the ENT clinic was demolished after which the sculpture went into storage for a long time. Since then it has received a new location at the Oostersingel on the UMCG hospital grounds.

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.

It can hardly be seen on the ground floor, but if you look up the façade you will see an impressive mansion. The presumed year of construction can be read at the top of the richly adorned façade: 1661. Originally the building stretched far into the Jacobijnerstraat and the residents used to house their coaches and horses in the back part of the complex (which no longer exists). Until a major renovation in 1923 it also had distinctive steps by the front door. Before councillor Andreas Ludolphi had the house built, the ground was owned by the Dominicans, who founded the city’s largest monastery complex between the Jacobijnerstraat and the Hofstraat. In 1308, thanks to a gift from the Groningen prefect the ground on which this house was built had belonged to the Dominicans, who were also referred to as Jacobins after their first church in Paris. Their order founded the largest monastery complex in the city between the Jacobijnerstraat and the Hofstraat.