Artwork Data

Title

Maquette van de werkelijkheid

Artist

Frank Halmans

Year

2001

Material

Brons en beton

Artwork Location

Address

Beresteinlaan 267, Den Haag

City district

Escamp

GPS data

52.0409111782, 4.2548541871719 View on map

Artwork Description

Text

Scale model of reality'. When you read this title, the thought of being taken for a ride creeps up on you. But with this humorous title, Frank Halmans immediately stimulates your imagination.

Halman's interest lies mainly in transitional places and gathering spaces such as waiting rooms and window sills. He is also fascinated by boundaries between the public and the private, between the physical and the mental. Moreover, functional use forms an important part of his art. He prefers to combine different functions in one sculpture. For instance, his so-called 'Bereboot', the bicycle shed he designed for Biesieklette, is an office while resembling the cabin of a ship. His objects from 1997 on the Van Limburg Stirumplein in Amsterdam simultaneously serve as seats in his tram guard house and as a pedestal for a pepper pot.

Halmans has also created a multifunctional, spatial work of art for the primary school on Beresteinlaan. In such a transitional area, no less. The original plan was for the new school building to be surrounded by water. The school would only be accessible via two bridges. In the end, there is a large square between the school and the immediate surroundings. An open space without a fence, accessible to everyone. This is where Halmans realised his 'Scale Model of Reality'.

The work of art consists of a table with four large concrete benches. The bronze table top is the actual model. It shows the school and its immediate surroundings. Everything is on it: the trees, the paths slightly recessed, the relief of the surroundings, the school building of course, and not forgetting the work of art itself. With a great sense of detail, Halmans has mapped out the surroundings with the aim of stimulating the imagination of playing children. The parents get a meeting place out of it, the school a marking of the transitional area between school and outside world.

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