John Blake Kunststop Witte de Withstraat & De Hals (2000)

In 1994 the tram stop 'Witte de Withstraat' was discontinued on the then line 5. The stop, which is not too far from the stops on Eendrachtsplein, was considered superfluous by the RET. Due to protests from museums and shopkeepers in the area, the stop was reopened in 1995 at the initiative of Manuel Kneepkens of the Stadspartij. After all, it lies on the cultural axis between the Witte de Withstraat and the Museum Park. This special stop should be given a face of its own with a work of art. Artist John Blake placed a second stop opposite the existing tram stop. It looked suspiciously like a regular stop, but was stark white and stripped of all advertising, timetables, and maps. Just the name Witte de Withstraat art stop is listed above a large area. The Art stop functions well today and has been put into use by the RET, like a 'real' stop. On the other side of the Westersingel, on a concrete plateau in the slope (a sewer bunker), Blake placed a pedestal with a neck on top. The neck is an enlargement of a display used to display jewelery in the window of jewelery stores. At first glance, the link between the white is stripped Art stop en The neck not immediately laid, but if you look longer, you will see that the sculpture is just as snow white and that it faces the tram stop. This makes the connection between the two elements visible. Both works can be seen as museumized copies, fitting in the Museum Quarter of Rotterdam.