Vervlogen tijden (Time has flown)

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…

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.

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.

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.

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.