Untitled (plaque - Gerrit Krol bridge)

About this artwork.

The Gerrit Krol bridge is a swing bridge in the city of Groningen, located across the Van Starkenborgh canal. Until 2005, the bridge was known as the Korrebrug or Korrewegbrug, due to its location at the end of the Korreweg. 

When it became known that the writer Gerrit Krol (1934), who grew up on the Korreweg, had come to live on this street again, the municipality of Groningen decided to rename the bridge the Gerrit Krol bridge. The graphic design of the name and plaque is by Harry Fierkens. On 8 July 2005, the writer himself unveiled the tribute set on the wall of the bridge keeper's cabin and bearing the text of the opening sentence of his biographically tinted novel De oudste jongen (The eldest boy, 1998).

In Gerrit Krol's literary work, the city of Groningen – and in particular the neighbourhood of his youth – play an important role. He writes, also in De oudste jongen, about the Van Starkenborgh canal: “It was a sharp canal, I thought, beautifully carved on the map. [...] I spent a lot of time at that canal. I cycled there, explored it, [...] I lay on the water's edge watching the few tankers which passed by; sometimes I swam in it [...] No artist ever painted the New Canal. Just me. With a ruler.”

As an employee of Shell and later of NAM, Gerrit Krol travelled across large areas of the world. In 2005, he came full circle by moving back to the Korreweg. As Krol formulates it himself: “Back to my roots. The city, c'est moi.”

Facts & Figures.

• Design
  Gerrit Krol

• District
  De Hunze, Ulgersmaborg, Oosterhoogebrug & Noorderhoogebrug

• Year of creation
  2005

• Art type
  Design, Art in / on a building, Plaque

• Dimensions
  divers