Artwork on the street is not always prominently displayed on a pedestal, like in a museum, and some are hard to find. They hang in the air, stand concealed amongst trees or even lie in the middle of a busy shopping street. These are the 7 best hidden works of art in Groningen.
1. PORTAAL
What better hiding place for a door than a busy shopping street full of doors? Many a tourist and city dweller will therefore have walked past Gert Sennema's Portaal (Portal) on Folkingestraat unnoticed. This bronze door from 1997, which looks remarkably like the real thing, is missing only one essential element: a door handle. As a result, the door will never be able to be opened. The work therefore symbolises the forever closed and inaccessible history of Folkingestraat, and in particular the history of the Jewish community that lived there.
2. HET VOORGESNEDEN PARADEPAARD
A few metres down Folkingestraat is the second hidden work of art. Between the men's hair salon at number 25 and an antique bookshop at number 23 is the Het Voorgesneden Paradepaard (The Pre-Cut Prize Horse). This 1997 artwork by Marijke Gémessy is a ceramic piece made into the back of a horse. Before World War II, number 23 once housed a horse butcher. From time to time, horses would then run through the narrow alleyway to the back entrance of this butcher. This artwork depicts a horse walking into the alley, the back of which a passer-by can just barely see. The horse is divided into different compartments that show which pieces the horse will be slaughtered in.
3. BUS STOPS
A few streets to the right of Folkingestraat, in Gelkingestraat and Oosterstraat, are the two Bus Stops. These inconspicuous works by Loes Heebink and Shlomo Schwarzberg stand next to — of course — former bus stops. Each work consists of two steel poles with a skylight between them and a plastic heart or lung on top. With these two bodies, the artists compare the city to the human body. They depict the city centre as the heart and the green suburbs as the lungs. Therefore, the bus to the city centre cuts through Oosterstraat past the Bus Stop with the heart and the bus towards the Ommelanden cuts through Gelkingestraat past the lungs.
4. WERKMAN MONUMENT
Hidden between two long rows of trees in the middle of Heresingel is the Werkman Monument, a five-metre-high bronze tree trunk. This sculpture was created by Dutch artist Armando to commemorate Groningen printer and artist Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman. Werkman, who preferred not to be fully in the spotlight, quietly criticised the Nazi regime during World War II by printing the magazine De Blauwe Schuit (The Blue Barge). This 1995 bronze tree is therefore sturdy and unobtrusive, just like Werkman.
5. FARSI LARGO/MAKING SPACE
The fifth artwork in this list hides behind nothing — it’s fully visible — but is nevertheless rarely noticed by most passers-by. This is because Farsi Largo/Making Space floats six metres above the ground. Irish artist Mullarney wanted to create a work about communication at this spot above Waagplein, where many people meet and talk. The artwork therefore seems to depict a miscommunication: the woman who appears to be coming out of the wall of the news cafe is trying to reach the hovering man and he extends his arm to her as well, but they do not touch.
6. THE LEPELAAR
The sixth hidden artwork is in a place where no one expects it: in the middle of an island in the Noorderplantsoen. This bronze Lepelaar (Spoonbill) stands there, at the water's edge and surrounded by trees, completely in its natural habitat. The statue has only been standing at this spot since 2005. The sculpture, created by Jan van Baren in 1977, proved too heavy for the smaller island near Kerkstraat and was therefore transferred to its current location.
7. THE BRIDGE AT THE GRONINGER MUSEUM
Surely the best hidden work of art from this list is the underside of the H.N. Werkman bridge, located between the Groninger Museum and the Central Station. This work only appears when the bridge is opened and can only be viewed from the centre side. On the underside, Flemish artist Wim Delvoye has applied Delft blue tiles depicting scenes that are anything but decent. For example, one character is peeing in front of a fan, another farts and the third looks at another's buttocks through a telescope.