Opening of ‘Vallei en Zand’

Last Friday, 24 March, it was finally time: the festive opening at Museum Lunteren. After almost a year of preparation, it was time to celebrate! The interest at the opening of the exhibition “Vallei en Zand” was heartwarming; some 180 invited guests attended the opening.

Gert-Jan Segers opened the exhibition. He said heartwarming things about the work of Otto de Bruijne and myself. His words were about ‘learning to see’ and ‘making visible’ the beauty behind the backdrop of woods, heath and sand plains. He praised us artists for our ability to take the viewer into a fascinating world behind natural reality.

Otto de Bruijne told the visitors a story about the trees on the Wekeromse Zand. Or the keer-weer-omse-zand (turn-back-again sand), as he calls it. He drew a parallel between the trees he came across on his walks and ourselves and society. Mighty trees that come and go, are subject to the elements and grow in all kinds of directions.

Then it was my turn. I referred to the birds that in spring gather branches – a parallel with what I do – and build their nests from them. I recently saw them at it again. If a nest remains just a nest, with no eggs laid and hatched in it, it is pointless. In the same way I hope that my artwork is not just a collection of branches, but a source of inspiration and something for the visitor to hold on to. Bees show behaviour that is similar. They fly from flower to flower in search of nectar, an elixir of life, and as a by-product they carry pollen on their bodies. They ensure fertilisation, health and new life.

Otto draws and paints dilapidated sheds, powerful beeches, oaks and tree roots in sand banks in and around the Wekeromse Zand. I find broken branches everywhere on the Veluwe. After I have peeled and cleaned those gnarled branches, recognisable characters turn out to emerge from the wounds. Adding a single attribute turns the latent image into recognisable human figures.

Until 1 July the Lunteren museum offers various activities around this exhibition. http://www.museumlunteren.nl

Title of the artwork at bottom right: ‘When the Smoke around Your Head Has Cleared’.

“How nice to hear people talk about your artworks, Wiebe. It surprises, challenges and gives Light.” – Annewil