What’s suddenly there!? If you drive from the A28 from Zwolle to Drenthe, you can hardly miss it. Suddenly there is a meter -high work of art at the Lankhorst junction.
“I put down a Horst here,” says artist André Pielage. It is a steel construction of 20 meters high, which stands next to the exit from the A28 to the A32. “We chose this place because we want to give the feeling that people are welcome again when they drive in the north,” says Fred Hofstra, treasurer of WBF Meppel.
This artwork is a gift from this fund, previously known as the Guarantee Fund. Think of it as an early birthday gift, because in two years this club will be 150 years old. WBF supports cultural and social goals and institutions in the municipality of Meppel.
“We believe that we must return something to the residents and visitors to this region,” says Hofstra. First WBF tried to organize something in Meppel, but that didn’t work. “So we made the choice to put this artwork on the edge of Meppel. That we then come to Staphorst, that is a coincidence.”
If you look closely, you can see a nest in the artwork. That is not a real stork nest – at least not yet – but also part of the steel construction. In fact: it is not a stork nest at all. “It is a towering knest,” says artist Pielage.
That is remarkable, because there are a huge number of storks around Lankhorst, because Stork Station is the Lokkerij nearby. “It is funny, because I have previously been able to make a work of art along the A28. At Amersfoort I also made one, with a stork nest in it. But here I have added a tower trap that is hidden in the steel nest I made here.”
Staphorst, Lankhorst and IJhorst. They are three villages in the neighborhood, all ending in Horst. That is why Pielage thought it was appropriate to put down a Horst as a work of art.
“A Horst is a higher area in a swampy area. In these higher areas the first settlements were created. The villages here with Horst in the name are all named after those higher areas. This used to be such a higher area in a swamp. It was a delta of the Zuiderzee,” explains Pielage.
Incidentally, nests of bird of prey are also called Horsten. Because those first settlements were surrounded by a wall of branches. “That looked like a sort of magnified bird of prey nest. So it is no coincidence that a bird of prey is also called Horst.”