Artwork Data

Title

Weer- of geen-weerwolf

Artist

Ingrid Rollema

Year

1994

Material

Brons

Artwork Location

Address

Binnendoor, Den Haag

City district

Centrum

GPS data

52.072762668209, 4.3048672037048 View on map

Artwork Description

Text

You can almost hear him crying. Standing upright on its hind legs and wrapped in sheepskin, a wolf-like figure seems to howl at the sight of all the residents of the Pander Complex. The animal has another special feature: at temperatures below ten degrees Celsius, steam comes out of its mouth. The title of this work of art is at least as special: Weather or no-werewolf. Ingrid Rollema is the maker.

It was the residents of this new residential community who, in the early 1990s, expressed their desire for a fountain in their courtyard to Stroom. The Pander Complex is a residential community with rental flats and spaces for small businesses that was created in the early 1990s in the former buildings of the Pander Furniture Factory. From 1887 to 1985, the Pander family ran a furniture factory on Brouwersgracht and Buitenom, and temporarily (1924 to 1934) even an aircraft factory. A group of squatters prevented the municipality from demolishing the old buildings.

Together with the residents, Stroom selected The Hague sculptor Rollema for a sketch assignment. Instead of a usual summer fountain, she proposed a 'fountain' that is active in the winter. An anti-fountain, in other words. Since 1994, her Were-or-not-Werewolf has stood in the courtyard of the complex. The stone paving around the wildlife grid with sculpture was replaced in 2010 by (vegetable) gardens of residents.

Rollema is not an unknown sculptor in The Hague. Her Ariana, better known as Wereldwijf, has stood beside the HEMA in the city centre for years. Clay is the medium in which she can best express herself. At the same time, her images also refer to theatre. Especially this steam-blowing werewolf. Over the years, Rollema has linked her work more and more to urgent social themes such as the war in the Gaza Strip and climate change. Activist art projects such as Cast Lead emerged from this.

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