City marking S08/ The Tower of Cards, The Tower of Letters, The Joker's Perch

The Envelope Sculpture was designed by artist Frank Sciarone. His sculpture consists of a large steel surface on which a smaller surface has been placed at right angles. One side of the large steel surface is covered with corrugated material as a reference to the water of the Damsterdiep and the Eemskanaal canals between which the neighbourhood is wedged. One building plot was reserved for the sculpture, which is emphasised by its measurements that can be compared with the adjacent houses: 9 metres high, 12 metres long and 4.5 metres at its broadest point.

The more than life-sized sculpture by Henk Visch is a bronze figure of a man who stretches forward while resting on his fingertips, providing the pose with tension. Visch’s sculptures are not easy to interpret. They have poetic beauty and invite personal interpretations. His works are mainly characterised by mysteriousness, which is enhanced even more by the titles, as in this case.  Secret Life in a Public Body  refers to ‘a secret life’, but does Visch’s public body refer to his sculpture or its location? And what exactly are these secrets? The work of art was in the Westerhaven underground car park for five years where it took the place of exactly one parking space. It was in striking contrast with the glossy vehicles. On 31 March 2009 it was relocated to the square of the Voormalig Klein Poortje at the Oosterhaven.

The Jewish Monument that commemorates the over 3,000 Jewish Groningen residents who were killed during World War II is located by the Hereweg and on the outskirts of the Sterrebos park. Eduard Waskowsky’s work of art was never completed: he died before he could finish the hand on the seventh pedestal, leaving the last pedestal empty. Each hand shows its very own emotion: the first is a clenched fist that expresses anger, while the second stretches upward in faith. The candlestick-shaped opening in the palm of the hand represents the menorah, the seven-armed candlestick that is a symbol of the Jewish people. The three hands standing express despair while the two lying hands symbolise sadness and resignation. The irregular wall of concrete blocks in the background refers to Judaism eroded by Nazi terror.

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.

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.

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…

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. By the Noorddijkerweg is a four hundred metre-long row of willows, all of which have been planted on one side of the canal and all of them are crooked because columns with metal wires in the canal warp their growth. This city gate was designed by choreographer William Forsythe, the trees of which symbolise dancing bodies that are shaped and changed. 

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.

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.

Groningen has its very own holiday: Bommen Berend (Bombing Berend). This day is all about commemorating the battle of Groningen in 1672 when commander-in-chief Carl von Rabenhaupt defended the city against the invasion of the bishop of Münster (Bombing Berend). Over 20,000 of his soldiers besieged the city from the south, in the area where currently the Rabenhauptstraat and the Kempkensberg are located. The invasion lasted for weeks and cost the lives of about 4,600 soldiers from the Münster-Cologne army and about 100 residents. Groningen was liberated on 28 August, and Bommen Berend is still celebrated every year on this date. The green copper ball in this monument symbolises a cannonball and the rusty surface of the tablet refers to the passing of time. The brass letters read the following: ‘Groningen Constant, Behoudt van ’t Landt’ (Groningen perseverant, retaining of the land). This sentence was on one of the emergency coins that were minted during the siege of Groningen. The division in the tablet symbolises the city and its environs. Large parts of the Ommelanden – the Groningen countryside – were flooded to defend the city.

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.

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.