Interview | Auke de Vries about making art for the public space
Despite the fact that you have many images in public space, you never register for an assignment. How did that happen?
“I take a lot of time to come up with a design and that time is rarely given to me. If someone approaches me, consultation is needed and you don't get that when you sign up for it. It's a time-consuming way of working, but I like doing things this way. I've been working on a project for two years now, and it's questionable whether it will ever be implemented.
After the fall of the Wall in 1989, I was asked by the German government to join an international team that went to Leipzig to see what could be done. It was an intensive project involving urban planners, poets, artists, writers and photographers. We came there to formulate how you could approach certain projects, what they mean and what the place means for the people there. As a team, we didn't want imposed plans, just a direction of thinking. That is a completely different form of being creative, but I like to get involved.
“I've been working on a project for two years now that it's questionable whether it will ever be implemented.”
One of my most famous statues is the Maas statue in Rotterdam. It turns out that over 180 people signed up for this and I didn't know anything about it. That's why I was completely surprised when I was selected as an artist. When I was given the assignment, I first asked for three months to look at the area. At the same time, I had made a request to join the urban planning team. All this had to be arranged especially because visual artists never participate. You really have to have the guts to participate in that. The team is mainly made up of urban planners and architects who see each other maybe once a month. They then discuss, for example, the significance of the city and what role it plays. After three months I wrote a first booklet about what I saw, what happened, how the bridge would function and how the sculpture fits into the whole. Based on that, I could start designing a sculpture. People are sometimes surprised that I work like this, but that's just my way of working."
What is the background of the image that is now being placed again in Groningen?
“That image has come a long way. It was originally made for the sculpture garden of the Peace Palace in The Hague. It was an exhibition in the garden of the Peace Palace and it was curated by Rudi Fuchs. He was director of the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague in the 1990s. Rudi Fuchs had made a selection of artists who all received an invitation to make a sculpture for the garden and I was one of the artists who was selected. One aspect I really liked was that this garden was less than a two minute walk from my house. The statue had a very nice place there and stood on a few walls about one meter high. The then Department of Aesthetic Design of the PTT bought it after a few years and so it ended up in Groningen. It stood there for a long time near a branch of the PTT until they finally donated it to the municipality of Groningen. Now they wanted to reposition the statue and that was immediately a good time to refurbish the statue. The wind, the sun and the rain have a big influence on the skin of the statue because it has always been outside. The tube has a coppery color but is made of iron. Copper is metal for a week and would not be able to handle the wind load.”
One of the things that stands out about your career is that you originally started out as a painter while now working as a sculptor. How did that transition take place?
“What is important to know is that I have not had any training for this. I come from the countryside and after the Second World War my family decided to move to Leeuwarden. After I had completed the vocational school there, I decided that I wanted to leave Leeuwarden. The world is so much bigger than Leeuwarden and I was curious about that. So I left when I was seventeen to study at the art academy. That was an incomprehensible act for many and actually I didn't know exactly what they did at the art academy. I did the admission and I immediately entered the fifth year. However, after a year or two I left for Paris and never returned to the academy.
Originally I started drawing and at some point I switched to painting. There was no training behind it and yet I did it for ten years. You could say I've never learned anything, but I've learned a lot of other people in my years as a teacher!
“When I was 17 I went to art academy. An incomprehensible act for many – and actually I did not know exactly what they were doing there.”
At one point I got an exhibition in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. The director Hans Locher then came to my studio to select works for the exhibitions and at the end he asked me: "Shouldn't those images come with you?" At first I wasn't sure what he meant, but then I realized he meant the structures I used as inspiration for my etchings. Before I started making these structures, the outside world was always the source of inspiration for my etchings. It was not that I worked naturalistically, but the motivation for my work always came from the immediate environment. At a certain point I got the feeling that I wanted to get rid of that and that's why I spent a month in the desert in Israel. There was nothing there at all and you could, as it were, avoid nature. When I came back I decided to start making things myself as a source for my etchings. I made these structures with everything that was available and had the same format as my etching plates. This transition was a very beautiful awakening for me. It's incredibly captivating because I never realized it could ever be a standalone thing. Afterwards you see that there is a logic in it, but you do not notice that when you are busy. Whether they are composers, painters or writers, you are busy all your life and are always making new things. The ideas are in your head and those are all things that eventually have to be born.
In the beginning, the construction had a linear character because it all comes from the line. Only later were volumes added and they became completely different forms, but the lines and writing have always remained important to me. I like to write, something that rarely happens today. Writing is a joy to do and extremely important because it is a direct link between your head and your hand. It is a form of concentration and something that unfortunately seems to be lost.”
On Wednesday evening, May 18, Auke de Vries will give a lecture about art in public space at Kunstpunt from 7.30 pm to 9 pm. Participation is free; you can register via info@kunstpuntgroningen.nl. More information can be found here.