link to TV program about the vernissage
project Prijepoljie
In the summer of 2010 I was invited to participate in the symposium "Milesheva Art Colony" in the town of Prijepolje, in Serbia, near the border of Montenegro. For me, as an artist, a wonderful opportunity to get to know a culture, where East and West, North and South Europe meet each other. Muslims and (orthodox)christians live side-by-side in this region. Precious remnants of an eventful history are present everywhere.
The art colony askes each participating artist to donate one piece of art. I wanted my artwork to be useful for the people and I also wanted local craftsmen to benefit from the job. On one of my walks trough town I cam across a nice spot near the river, where I was greated by a friendly dog. There I decided my contribution would be: the design of a nice object to sit on, as a present to the people of Prijepolje. My design has been caaried ou by local carpenter, Mr. Mirko Lojanica. The wooden bench and concrete chairs, which form the word "NADA"(=Hope) in Cyrillic alphabeth, have been received enthousiastically by the local people.The foto's give an impression of the installation and the vernissage of the artwork at 23 august 2011.
positioning the wooden bench Serbian fork lift truck the crew the neighbours/advisors
the neighbours Hester Pilz & Mirko Lojanica complete project at border of the Lim
 RK church at the opposite bank of the river
project Prijepoljie 2011 project Prijepoljie 2011 NADA=Hope NADA=Hope
scale model design drawing design drawing design drawing
Veel dank gaat uit naar de sponsors: fam. Leenders, fam. Groes, fam. Kerkhofs, fam. Schoon, fam. Ijsselmuiden, Tonny Gelens-Mens, fam. Lelyveld, Frans Brooymans, Gerald Risseeuw, fam. Vinke, Saskia vd Meer, fam. Lamberts, fam. Pilz, Loes en Paul, fam. de Ridder,Ine en Dré, Bart en Chava, Lya en Frank, Liesbeth en Benito, Sylwia en Kees,Ien, Dragan
foto's of the fundraising party at my home