Stay Close To Me (Blijf mij nabij)

About this artwork.

Stay Close To Me is a memorial to Thesinge-born resistance fighter Hendrik Ridder. Ridder played an important role in the Groningen armed resistance during the Second World War. Among other things, this group ensured that a total of around 20,000 people, who were in danger of being arrested by the Germans, found somewhere safe to hide. But Ridder was betrayed and after interrogation in the infamous Scholtenhuis on the Grote Markt in Groningen, he was executed at the age of just 26. Hendrik Ridder was a religious man with 'a voice like a bell'. Older inhabitants remembered how he sang along loudly with the psalms. 

Herbert Koekkoek designed a monument in the form of a torn-off piece of paper, as we can imagine it was smuggled out of prison for him. Some musical notes and the psalm text Stay Close To Me, have been carved into Corten steel.

Herbert Koekkoek made this for the municipality of Ten Boer.

Facts & Figures.

• Design
  Herbert Koekkoek

• District
  Ten Boer en omgeving

• Year of creation
  2008

• Art type
  Monument

• Material
  Cortenstaal

• Dimensions
  h 1,45 x b 1,00 x d 0,07 m