On Thursday December 2, the artwork was Parabola Blues (2021) by Madeleine Berkhemer (1973-2019) revealed. The artwork is a gift from real estate developer HD Groep and is part of the redevelopment of the former prison on Noordsingel into the Tuin van Noord residential complex. The gift to the municipality of Rotterdam has been placed in the publicly accessible garden of the residential complex. Two staircases from the former prison form a constructivist V on a high concrete base.
Due to the current corona measures, the unveiling took place in a limited circle. Robin Dijkgraaf, director of HD Groep, and Oscar Hartzema, son of Madeleine Berkhemer, unveiled the image together. In honor of the artwork and its creator, former city poet and Poet Laureate Ester Naomi Perquin wrote the poem up.
up
Here, in a triumphant V, looking returns. The lively
walk, the uncounted steps of the days before demolition;
the lines of the bars are still in the sky.
The shape turns with it, to pencil point, blade, injection needle. your look
determines the image. Here is no view that you share, at most aspects
of a language that no longer sounds: the rise and fall of
looted days, stolen gold that glitters in the sunlight;
from top to bottom you walk differently than
up from the bottom.
Here remains the step that is missing, the coincidence of the eye,
the step that misses. Distance, too great to measure,
is the smallest distance there is.
Parabola Blues is produced by the HD Groep in collaboration with the Madeleine Berkhemer Foundation and BKOR. The execution was done by Lens BV.
Read here the Im Memoriam about Madeleine written by Sandra Smets.
