30-12-2018

Dutch Design Daily

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Buro Staal/Christensen www.staalchristensen.nl

De Houtwagon

By 30-12-2018

On the 30th November 2018 the sculpture ‘De Houtwagon’ (The Wood Wagon) by Buro Staal/Christensen in Valkenswaard was unveiled. It is placed on the roundabout where the Europalaan crosses the Bakkerstraat and the Wolbergstraat.

The artwork is the result of a contest that was organized by the municipality of Valkenswaard about a year ago. The commission was to design a work of art for this roundabout with a reference to the use of the line as a railway, in the vernacular called the ‘Belgian line’.

The design of the sculpture refers to the transport of logs by rail to the mining industry in Belgium. The wood was used to make struts for the mine shafts. Pit coal was taken back.

The artwork is an abstract representation of a flat wagon loaded with tree trunks and it is arranged in such a way that from the Europalaan you drive ‘behind’ the wagon so that you can see the round trunks. From the Bakkerstraat and the Wolbergstraat the sculpture looks like a passing wagon allowing you to look right on through the wheels and see the trunks passing in the longitudinal direction.