Art Route Folkingestraat.

Gert Sennema placed a door with a stone step in a wall with a bricked-up window on the corner of Folkingestraat. Nothing special in itself. However, the door lacks a door handle, a possibility to be opened.

The history of the Folkingestraat is hidden behind this closed door and window. A history that only few can retell, because most of the people who once lived there were taken away during the Second World War.

The door appears to be made of solid wood, but on closer inspection it turns out to be bronze. Sennema treated it with patina, which evokes the structure and color of wood. 

After Portaal, you will find the Synagogue on your right, built in 1905, on the site of a much smaller and less impressive synagogue. The building was designed by architect Tjeerd Kuiper (1857-1942), who also designed the Zuiderkerk on Stationsstraat in Groningen. After the Second World War, the Jewish community was forced to sell the building, after which a laundry was added. From 1973 it became vacant and threatened to be demolished. In the early 1980s, the dilapidated building was fortunately saved and restored. Since then, the Synagogue has been in full use again, as a synagogue, but also as a place where, for example, exhibitions and concerts are organised.

Joseph Semah's work occupies a rather inconspicuous place in the streetscape. Semah realised a lunar cycle in the middle of the pavement of the Folkingestraat: eleven bronze lunar shape, from full moon to new moon. If all of the shapes were to be joined together, an eye would be created. The full moon acts as a pupil. 
 
The word moon means eye in Hebrew and is also linked to the number eleven because in Hebrew, numbers are linked to words. For Semah, the lunar cycle is a metaphor for the life cycle and the cycles that make up history and the future. 
 
Over time, the patina of the bronze moons will gradually wear off due to pedestrians and cyclists. This will slowly reveal the shine of the material.

A horse butcher lived in the building at number 23 before the Second World War. Marijke Gémessy was inspired by this fact. This butcher was one of the many Jewish shopkeepers who contributed to the prosperity of Folkingestraat. At regular intervals, the horses were brought in and driven into the corridor to the slaughterhouse. The memory of this part of the past is now maintained by the ceramic relief The pre-cut parade horse. 
 
On the relief, a horse's hind legs can be seen in side view, life-size. Clasped between two walls we see it just walk into the butcher's shop, just before it will be slaughtered. The dissection – steak and loin – has already been made visible. It even has a quality mark. Behind the horse, authentic butcher's tiles can be seen, only the colour has been changed by the artist. Because of the reflective effect, the space seems larger. By placing the horse on a plinth, the work becomes not only a tribute to the former shopkeeper but also a tribute to the slaughtered horse.

Van Altena made enamel signs for three different porches. He found the photographs that he incorporated in this in the municipal archives. They were made at the beginning of this century in the same place where they now hang in the artist's work. 
 
 They act as a mirror of the past. As a spectator, you become a witness to what once took place here, such as a street party or the performance of a theatre club. It creates a festive feeling that is further enhanced by the “confetti” scattered over the photographs.

Ook Hier (Here Too) is a special work of art. De Kan had the word “(Weggehaald)” (removed) milled out of the facade. In this way, he wants to emphasise the loss and emptiness in the Jewish and Groningen community after the Second World War. Placing the word between brackets accentuates not being present. De Kan wanted to show “that it is gone, without putting back what is gone". 

The inconspicuous location of the artwork also has a special reason. According to the artist, it is a subject that no longer lives with everyone, it has disappeared to the margins of attention. That's why he placed his artwork in the sideline, outside the direct field of view.

The last artwork on this route is also the only piece of art that's not part of the Verleden verbeeld project.

Henri de Wolf's plaque adorns the side facade of café De Beurs. In 1885, the Groningen section of the Social Democratic Union was founded in this building. One hundred years later, in honour of the centenary, this facing stone was unveiled. 
 
De Wolf, himself a socialist, designed the plaque and had it executed in marble and black granite. The artist opted for a trowel, reduced to a simple, geometric form; a few piled-up bricks embossed on the granite and a quotation from Karl Marx.