A green girl dangles in the air in Roden. The statue, made by Nicolas Dings, of the life and work of one of the most famous inhabitants of the village: the poetess M. Vasalis.
On Sunday, on the anniversary of the death of M. Vasalis, the statue was unveiled in the presence of the son and a daughter and (great) grandchildren of the woman who lived in De Zulthe, the white house on the outskirts, until her death 24 years ago. of the Natural Forest.
In a light-hearted speech, book editor Joep van Ruiten of Dagblad van het Noorden indicated the great importance of M. Vasalis and showed on the basis of fragments of letters that the poet herself might have had a bit of trouble with such a tribute.
If tribute was not so much spent on M. Vasalis, the poet is very important to Roden. “We keep her work alive,” says Daan Nijman of the Vasalis working group. A special corner is dedicated to the poet in the bookshop and her portrait hangs in the library. The Vasalis working group organizes all kinds of activities to draw attention to poetry. In February next year there will be a Vasalis evening in bookshop Daan Nijman.
The working group also plans to connect the places in Roden that are linked to the poetess with a themed walk. In any case, the monument in honor of her hundredth birthday near Mensinge, De Zulthe house where Vasalis lived and the new work of art will be part of this.
The artwork is part of the redevelopment of the center of Roden, which is still in full swing. Civil servant Mark Smit came up with the idea, following the example of the province of Drenthe, to reserve a small part of the budget for art in public space.
A line from the poem Daphne stands on the column. ‘Only my feet on the old ground connect me with the existing’, can be read on the pedestal. ‘The column becomes a tree and then a graft that produces new life’, explains artist Dings. Each part of the artwork represents one of the four poetry collections made by Vasalis.