GATE OF HEUVELLAND

Golden artwork for Cadier and Keer:

“....don’t pass this without thinking about vacation....”

Scholz Benelux BV delivered the blue pigment to VDE Beton for the sky-blue base of the artwork. This concerns the lightfast pigment  G2828, blue.

The text below was written by the artist responsible for the design.

An artwork marks the transition between Heuelland and Maasdal. A golden face, sun, caravan, golden egg: whatever it is you wish to see , on a 4-meter high air-blue base. If you climb up from Maastricht through the long Versailles-like lane, you can see the golden landmark from miles away. Against the blue sky, the base seems to disappear and the egg-shaped sun appears to be floating above the mountain: a greeting to everyone who enters or leaves the Heuvelland. By the way, this is true gold: thousands of thin sheets of gold leaf were applied one by one. 

Creating a “gate of the Heuvelland”, that was the assignment. I wanted to reduce this somewhat broad concept to its essence: Heuvelland = tourism = income for the area.

Therefore, the artwork is about tourism (as well). It’s what this region is historically intertwined with, both in an historical and economical sense. Hence the golden egg and caravan. However, the tourism was attracted by the beautiful landscape. From now on, nobody will enter this landscape without being reminded of that (or to think about vacation at least…)

Artworks and roundaboutsare things that, usually, do not mix well, since interpreting art usually involves a long period of looking. This is why I created an artwork that you can take in at a glance when driving past it. The actual looking occurs gradually afterwards.

When you pass it next time, you might just see something else in the statue, which leads to questions and thoughts. Someone who looks at art regularly knows ho wit Works. However, most people do not look at art regularly, which is why I’ll provide a couple of examples below. I’m writing what it is that I’m thinking when I’m seeing the statue. I am a spectator as well. For me, designing an artwork is something that goes automatically, as if someone else has done it. The only thing I can feel, is whether it is right or not. Afterwards, I have to discover what it is that I made, just like anybody else. They sometimes come up with things I never interpreted myself, even thought, in hindsight, these are often very logical.

Many interpretations have been given, I’ll add some more:

-Traffics signs are designed to stand out. There are many signs at the roundabout and I could simply not ignore them (just like the concrete advertising walls for the province). In order to neutralize the signs, I included them in the artwork as openings in the golden shape.

-Since one ‘eye’ is round and the other triangular, it looks like a blinking face.

-the wrought iron fence and classical base serve to give the statue a typical monument status.

However, the intention is that everyone has his/her own associations. This is why I will not elaborate any further.

Hans Lemmen, artist www.hanslemmen.nl