Levensboom
Michiel Kluiters proposed two artworks: one at the entrance to the schoolyard and one at the main entrance to the school. Entrance gateAt the entrance to the schoolyard stands a particularly beautifully designed steel entrance gate, in which you can clearly recognize the silhouette of a tree. It is a tree of life, according to the artist a metaphor for the child growing up within school. Not surprisingly, among the abstract tree branches full of leaves, you discover a globe, a book, a backpack and a soccer ball. These elements represent learning and playing. Developing yourself and discovering the world.The entrance gate has a nicely balanced color palette: a green that contrasts with the surroundings with a striking red-brown gritwork behind it. It is also striking that the left part of the entrance gate is more closed than the right part. Where on the left the leaves have been removed, those on the right are actually present in material. This execution makes the entrance gate extra playful. According to the artist, you can see the gate parts as night and day. Together a twenty-four hour period with the moon on the left and the sun on the right as signifiers. The entrance gate has an unusual support: it is exactly centered on a large concrete disc. The disc shows a labyrinth derived from a tree stump with annual rings. The annual rings refer to the cycle of life. The labyrinth as the path of life you walk to eventually, in the middle, arrive at yourself. There you will find a pine cone, a symbol that stands for inner wisdom in various religions. Here, too, extra playfulness has been incorporated into the execution. On the street side, the image on the concrete disc is executed in relief. On the schoolyard side, the image is cut into the concrete. As in the entrance gate, leaves can be seen; as if they just swirled from the tree next to the entrance gate onto the concrete disk. Together, entrance gate and concrete disk form the connection between the school and the neighborhood. They give visitors a nice welcome and at the same time give meaning to the place you are visiting. At the main entrance, Michiel Kluiters' eye fell on the standard corten steel tree grid proposed by the architect. For the top, he designed an energetic play of lines. According to the artist, you can see the line as a long tree branch that forms the letters of the alphabet along the way during the growth process. Between the letters and often even connected to them, you can see different leaves. These leaves connect the tree grid not only to the tree in the middle, but also to the entrance gate and the concrete disc on the other side of the school building. Thus the three elements together are a rich and fitting work of art for De Boemerang. Full of visual elements and symbolic meanings. Although the artist explicitly invites everyone to fill in the meaning of the artwork in their own way.
