There is a speedboat in the water in this Zoetermeer shopping center

In the De Vijverhoek shopping center there is a speedboat on a staircase at the edge of a pond. It lies somewhat inconspicuously on the quay, while Zoetermeer residents walk by with groceries and pigeons eat food crumbs. What is that speedboat doing there? indebuurt is looking into it.

The stone speedboat is a work of art by the Dutch visual artist Michel van Achterberg (1969), also known as Zagara. You see the object located on Van Stolberglaan in the Driemanspolder district.

Boat trip across the pond

Speedboat Z414 is therefore an art object that has been lying on the stairs in the Vijverhoekse pond since 2014. According to the artist, the speedboat suggests that a boat trip across the pond once took place, but unfortunately ended on the steps.

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Artist’s fantasy

On the Kunstwacht website All works of art are located in Zoetermeer. On the page about the speedboat, the artist gives free rein to his imagination about his work of art:

. . . “Walking in the Vijverhoek shopping center, looking out over the stairs that turn into a pleasant-looking pond, I suddenly felt a typical feeling. One of those premonitions that you only know once it has happened that you actually already felt it coming. Exactly at that moment, all my impressions and feelings that I had gained there exploded, as it were. When I looked up I saw that a speedboat had actually stopped on the steps.

Now petrified, as if they had not known all that time what to do with this unexpected spectacle in Vijverhoek. A relic of an event of which only rumors and exaggerated stories are circulating.” . . .

Also spotted a mystery?

Another mystery solved! Do you also have a question about Zoetermeer? Maybe you are curious about the meaning of another work of art or street name. indebuurt will find out! Mail your mystery to [email protected].