Asylum seekers who are accommodated in the former Bladergroen school in Eelde will roll up their sleeves in the coming weeks to reproduce a special work of art. It is a ceramic work of art by the now deceased Groningen artist Anno Smith.
The artwork that Smith created on a wall of the Bladergroen School symbolizes how the children, who attended special primary education, once entered and how they left the school. Namely: ‘wing lamb’. “But in the end they fly away again like a beautiful flight of children heading towards their future,” artist Peter Tholen explains. He started this project together with Siebe Diertens, former caretaker of the Bladergroenschool.
The same symbolism applies to the asylum seekers in the asylum seekers’ center. “It’s difficult for them to get in here; they’ve been through all kinds of things. And when they leave here, in a few years they will be citizens of the Netherlands,” says Tholen.
It was Diertens who knew about the work of art. It was once visible on the wall, but for safety reasons a wall has now been placed in front of it and the artwork can no longer be admired at all. “We are now recreating it together with the residents, for the wall,” says Tholen. “And in six months, when the residents leave, that wall will be demolished and then we will look at the real work of art.”
In the coming weeks, the artwork will be worked on for a few hours every Thursday. Residents who are interested can help out. “We were here for the first time last week and there were all the adults who helped,” says Diertens. “And now it is a group of children. And they are very enthusiastic. And that makes us enthusiastic too.”
One of them is Omar, from Balochistan, a province in Pakistan. He has been living in the asylum center in Eelde for a few months now. He ‘really enjoys’ helping out. According to artist Tholen, Omar is a talent. Although he thinks differently about it. “I’m not very good,” he says modestly. He likes to help, but what he loves most: playing football!