Wanted boots! Hundreds of boots are needed for a performance at the Joods Werkdorp near Slootdorp. Composer Geert Schoonbeek de Vlaming and artist Wouten van Deenen want to make the inhabitants of the Jewish Work Village commemorate those who were deported and murdered during the Second World War. “The boots symbolize the people who would have worn them.”
‘Extracted from the clay’ is the name of the image song. The initiator is composer Geert Schoonbeek de Vlaming. His inspiration comes from the commemoration last March at the Joods Werkdorp: “There were lectures about the people who lived and worked here and were removed. I wanted to do something for the place. At night I got an idea about the boots. idea that if you ask to hand in boots, you get a collaboration with the environment, people who know the story. That way you also make people aware of what happened.”
Oppressive
Meanwhile, chaotic sounds of guitar music can be heard over the grounds of the Joods Werkdorp. A black runner has been laid out on the field, on which a pair of boots is added each time towards an imaginary end. The combination makes it an oppressive whole, says Wouter van Deenen. “Yes, someone said that to me and that’s what it is. I’m taking steps on behalf of other people who couldn’t do that anymore because they were killed.”
Text continues under the video with an impression of the imagery
“Boots that were left behind after the deportation, People who couldn’t take any more steps because they were murdered” – NH News / Jurgen van den Bos
There will be no public performance of the image song. Next autumn, the artist and composer want to make a recording of the performance that can be viewed online later. Van Deenen: “This was a tryout. The aim is to collect about two to three hundred pairs of boots and maybe it will look very different.”
NSB and SS past
Around seventy pairs of boots have now been received. A man from Den Oever arrives at the work village with two pairs of rubber boots. “Actually, they were for the cycle, but I think this is a better initiative. It does something to me. I have family with an NSB and SS past and this is an item that I have been working on for a long time. It is good to to keep that history alive.” He looks emotionally at the performance on the field: “It still touches me. I actually want to leave it at that.”
You can still hand in boots at Hippolytushoef at Kremersweg 17 and at Huisduinen in the carport at Badhuisstraat 50-B.
Read also
North Holland
