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Zwijndrecht Walburg Project
The city of Zwijndrecht in the Netherlands commissioned me to make a sculpture for the new district of Walburg. I was given the liberty to choose the location. The only request was to design something functional that would blend with its surroundings. I chose a location I had known long before Walburg was planned—the boundary between the towns of Zwijndrecht and Hendrik Ido Ambacht. High-tension wires crossed this site, and in misty weather, you could hear the electric current humming. Once a year, the sunset aligned with one vanishing point of the cables, and on the longest day, the dividing line—a drainage ditch between the two towns—pointed toward the sunrise. This combination of details gave me the inspiration I needed.The etymology of the word Walburg justified my intentions: 'wal' referring to an elongated earthen mound, and 'burg' a fortification. I named it the Walburg Project.
I worked on the designs from 1971 to 1972, and in 1973 the proposal was accepted and executed.
Walburg Project 1971|1973 earth - asphalt - meandering dike , bronze, high-tension pylon and pollard willows - 136x50x19m Zwijndrecht, the Netherlands
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