Art route through the Noorderplantsoen.

Barefoot, with her knees raised and her head back, the girl basks in the sun. The statue, which the audience calls Zonaanbidster ('Sun-worshipper') makes a massive impression because the figure is represented in basic shapes. Naturalistic details such as muscles, hair or pleats in her dress are omitted. The block of limestone from which the sculpture is made is still clearly visible in the contours of the sitting girl. Until 1954, the girl was in the grass. However, the then Municipal Department of Urban Planning and Housing objected to this and gave her a plinth

You reach the sculpture Mannetje ('Little Man') by Gjalt Blaauw after a small climb. The statue has stood on this hill since 1975, a place chosen by the artist himself. The sculpture, made of white cristallino marble, is the first and last figurative sculpture that Blaauw carved out of stone. During his training at Academy Minerva, he wanted to see if he could succeed in carving a model out of stone: “Once I had succeeded, I could continue: my curiosity was satisfied.”

The human figure and the table behind which he sits are rather roughly carved. For example, the face is minimally represented and the arms and hands can just be distinguished. Just like with humans, the ravages of time gain more and more grip on the image, and its appearance becomes rawer and rawer.

On an island in one of the ponds of the Noorderplantsoen, a stylized spoonbill looks out over the water. Jan van Baren made the bronze bird in 1977; it was then his first large bronze sculpture. The work stood for a long time in the garden of the artist in Westeremden, but was moved to the Noorderplantsoen in 2000, where it was given a place on an island in the pond near the neighborhood café De Bres. Because the foundation of the statue turned out to be too heavy for the subsoil, the statue was relocated in 2005 to the island where it now stands, near the Moesstraat.

For this work you have to get off the beaten track and focus on the lawn. If you search a bit, you will come across three concrete slabs with the enigmatic texts Zie hier, Zie daar and Zie zo ('See here', 'See there' and 'There You Go'). The duo Zie hier and Zie daar are, as it were, rounded off in the resolute Zie zo.

Frans Nieuwlaat made the artwork for Stadsparadijs ('City Paradise'), an exhibition of contemporary visual art organized in 1993 by CBK Groningen (the predecessor of Kunstpunt). Afterwards, the work was purchased for the city.

Artist Wladimir de Vries worked on Wisent with an iron sledgehammer for no less than a year and a half. The statue is more than two meters high, three meters long and weighs about ten tons. The hefty figure with her compressed forms and gigantic neck section exudes primal power. Since 1982, the work is impressing passers-by here on the edge of the Noorderplantsoen.

At first you will see a blue tube that functions as a fountain. If you look closely, you will see that the wavy line of the tube forms the profile of a face. When the fountain starts spouting, the picture becomes complete: the water is the flowing hair of a head that tilts slightly back. For example, it is the unusual materials wind, water and gravity that determine this image. Lugthart was commissioned to design a fountain that would also be interesting when turned off. In the winter you can judge whether this has been successful: then the fountain is always off due to the risk of freezing.