from 6 artists - an article in a publication about six works commissioned by the
BNG bank
Marjan Unger
'Den Arend has already established a forceful oeuvre. Many of his works enrich
public spaces such as the Amsterdam Minervaplein and the Rotterdam Marconiplein.
Sculptors choose for space and usually work with volumes. In the work of den
Arend the accent lies foremost upon the line that describes space, sometimes as
the contour of a plane, and sometimes as an independent element, as is the case
in his pipe constructions. In the sculpture Europa he consciously took in
account the fact that the sculpture would be seen by motorists. The bounding
curved lines of the fifteen meter long sculpture rotate around a heart lying at
a height of more than one meter. In a static sculpture he created enormous
movement. The polished gold colored metal object for the Bank voor Nederlandse
Gemeenten is more intimate and playful. Naturally this is because of its size,
but above all because it also has real motion thanks to the joints which are
integrated with the curved lines. The object can be placed in a space in
different positions. In the course of this year, in the Molenwijk district of
The Hague, an eighty four meter long sculpture of den Arend will be placed that,
through its long-drawn-out movement, has strong similarities to this object.'
