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Arch a sculpture near Rotterdam in old Rhoon
During the eighties the city of The Hague had the open application procedure for public art projects. Artists could apply by sketching their idea for the given site where funds were made available for site specific art projects. Here was the junction of two main avenues in 'Den Haag', the Binckhorstlaan and the Neherkade.
The committee immediately chose my suggestion to position an arch over the intersection. This would not be the conventional arch but half of a Romanesque vault's rib construction, in such a way that I chose the two arch segments which meet at a right angle. But the two avenues do not intersect at a right angle; so the angle between the two segments would correspond to that of the axes of the Binckhorstlaan and the Neherkade, which was either an acute or an obtuse angle. After studying the traffic flow I decided on the location where the angle would be greater than 90 degrees.
But when the large segments were bent and all the other parts were made, there was an unexpected delay. Some people at the public works department of The Hague seem to have woken up and realized that the advisory committee for the arts had not been notified about some changes that had been made in the construction of the intersection. The new dimensions made it impossible to place the sculpture. It had become too small. The only thing that could be done was to store the parts and try to find some solution - or another location in The Hague. The contractor had his facilities in the street adjoining the site, and they were stored there. After about seven years no other location was found in the city. So Stroom Art Center of The Hague contacted me about what to do. if I wanted, I could become the owner again or the sculpture could be scrapped. I started looking for a space to store it ....
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works©author: Lucien den Arend
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