It used to be just a house on the Meerweg in Overschild. Now, cleared and awaiting demolition, it has mutated into a temporary museum, with photos, texts and an audio tour, by photographer Gus Drake. A monument to the earthquake misery. The opening aroused admiration and emotion on Friday.
A walk on the Meerweg is an unreal experience. Instead of a classic village road, it looks like the edge of a Vinex neighbourhood. New construction after demolition. A chat after the opening of the exhibition makes it clear that a new house does not just take away the pain. “I live at Meerweg 1,” says Nita Westerhof. “On March 1, 2021 I received the key to my new home. It wasn’t until last week that I felt for the first time: now it’s my house. After two years. I missed the old so much. What we made of it ourselves. This new house, for me they were long straight walls, cold, without a past.”
Crooked eyes as a danger to the community
Gus Drake, a young Amsterdammer, half American but with a grandmother in Garsthuizen, has worked long and intensively to sketch a striking and narrative image in the empty rooms and kitchen, for his Ode to Home . Large, artistic but not far-fetched photos on the walls, collages of old photos on the floor, roughly constructed wall texts with tangible memories, photos of open photo books, as the past within the past. In between, the texts run through the headphones, some of the visitors come out affected again.
Mayor Adriaan Hogendoorn of Central Groningen was present in the garden as one of the pre-speakers in this “village with great reputation, against will and thanks”, as he said. Hoogendoorn sketched the inequality in the street, one helped, the other not helped, also exemplary for the area. Crooked eyes as a danger to an entire community. “I can encourage people here, but it won’t change. And that also applies to Vijlbrief.” In other words, let that talk, do something. And quickly what.
‘I have a little secret. I’ll take the cabinet
The State Secretary was a guest a day earlier at a meeting in Sound and Vision, where an exhibition on the consequences of gas extraction can also be seen. View of Groningen . Unslept and devastated by (and probably also from) the nitrogen debate, he received a copy of the Noorderlicht-/Noorderwidth book How we can proceed attached to yet another exhibition, in the Museum aan de A in Groningen.
Vijlbrief reiterated how important it was to him to come to the North on a regular basis. To listen, to take seriously. “I have a secret. Soon I want to take the entire cabinet with me.”
Spiritual caregiver in the earthquake area Marjo van Bergen, herself also part of a video documentary in the exhibition in The Hague, asked the State Secretary to remain ‘mainly human’ at the handover, where the administrators previously showed themselves mainly treasurers. However, the retired Marga Gerdez-Van den Berk from Overschild, also filmed for the exhibition, has had enough of all that beautiful humanity. “I don’t need you to come over with words. Something needs to be done.”
Even a new house is not enough
At the same time, she indicated that ‘doing’ is not just finished. “Yes, but you will still get a new house, you often hear.” So it doesn’t work that way. Gerdez was interviewed with five other Groningers about their diverse experiences in a room and was naturally present on the Meerweg a day later. Also for a few words in the then sunny garden, where at least fifty people had come.
Immediately after she said how much effort it takes to hold back your tears with this theme, she didn’t succeed, that’s how strong the misery is on the surface. She picked herself up and, possessing the gift of the word, ended with the hope that Overschild “through the pain of parting, comes to unity in our new homes.” With which she implicitly referred to the divisive mushroom, which causes unequal treatment.
There is a story behind every broken stone
Of course Sandra Beckerman was also there, SP member of parliament, as the most active politician in the gas extraction misery. With a nice comparison and a good joke. That behind every broken stone there is a story, as she noticed when she studied shards as an archaeologist and eventually came across a child’s skeleton. “I have been researching shards for five years. You will say, five years, shards, isn’t that pointless. Well, I’ve been in the Chamber for six years…”
Beckerman got the book Chronicle of Groningen written for the Groningen historian Martin Hillenga, offered first, the third part of the triptych formed by the exhibition and the documentary previously shown at Human Soil in Motion from Saskia Jeulink. Heritage partners and the Stories of Groningen have joined forces for this. You cannot say that Groningen itself does little to keep its eyes on the problem. “Meanwhile, the attention in The Hague has completely waned again”, Beckerman concluded sourly.
After the demolition, a tour of the country follows
Gus Drake was finally allowed to talk open his own ‘museum’, in the doomed house of Gert and Ellen de Vries. He also showed his emotions in warm words about the area and the residents, especially those of this house, and their cooperation. In a month’s time – the date has not yet been set, said Gert de Vries – the demolition workers will come and tear down the torn-up house, exhibition and all.
The advantage of photos: they can be reprinted. They will be used in a tour of the major cities, during which conversations with the public and accompanying Groningers will follow, led by Louis Stiller, writer/journalist from Warffum. And all this preferably before the big debate following the parliamentary inquiry. No, they don’t sit still here.
The exhibition at Meerweg 6 in Overschild will be open to the public in the coming weekends.