Untitled (Indies Monument)

About this artwork.

The Indies Monument on the Selwerderhof is a place to walk, observe, contemplate and commemorate. Along a 120-metre path, the names of the Groningen soldiers who died in the former Dutch East Indies and New Guinea are engraved in a sandstone band. In the years 1945-1950, the Netherlands carried out police actions there. These were acts of war against Indonesian freedom fighters who had proclaimed the independent Republic of Indonesia in 1947. The Netherlands wanted to preserve the area as a colony and won the battle, but eventually, under heavy international pressure, gave up its possession. During the police actions, 2500 Dutch soldiers were killed, 142 of whom came from the province of Groningen.

The sandstone band is followed on the other side of the path by a bench, which is made of old pile moorings. The names of the fallen are not arranged in alphabetical order but by the date of death, making the monument a path through time.

The verses from the poem Psalm by Rutger Kopland, which can be read at the site of the memorial, are particularly symbolic:
(…)
“Because we wanted to find our name.
But only the wind knows the place
where we were, when and where.”

Facts & Figures.

• Design
  Anne Hilderink
  Peter de Kan

• District
  Zernike

• Year of creation
  2002

• Art type
  Monument

• Material
  Wood, Concrete, Natural stone, Messing

• Dimensions
  h bank 0,40 x b 1,20 m/b pad 1,50 m x l 120 m en variabel naastgelegen groenstroken