SCHOONHEID EN CONCENTRATIE
The Amsterdam court has been located in the Zuidas since the late 1970s. The first building to be constructed here was the cantonal courthouse by architect Ben Loerakker, with its characteristic unfinished concrete interior. Over the course of time, five towers were added, one with hanging courtrooms, and even so, space remains limited. There are plans for a new complex next to the present accommodations, the court recently announced. Its completion is scheduled for 2018.
There was already some art in the court back when it was still on the Prinsengracht, says Frans Bauduin, vice president and member of the art committee. The works were on loan from the Netherlands State Art Collections Service (Rijksdienst voor de verspreiding van kunst), the current Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage (ICN). The art committee was formed when the new quarters were constructed in the Zuidas.
Thanks to the percentage regulation, whereby the national government spends one percent of the construction costs on art, the cantonal courthouse is decorated with huge paintings and lengths of tapestries, integrated with courtrooms and public reception areas. For the fanning-out, monumental red-white circles by Rudi van de Wint, one of the courtrooms even has a specially designed, round back wall.
Slowly but surely, and with a modest budget, a collection of several hundred pieces has been put together since then. Large and smaller paintings, drawings, sculptures and tapestries by mostly Dutch young talents, lots of figurative work, lots of portrayals of people, but also abstract work, with an emphasis on clear, contemplative colours. Paintings by Kars Persoon, drawings by Bas Meerman and the Belgian artist Benoit, sculptures by Henk Visch and Fioen Blaisse and tapestries by Toon Verhoef hang or stand throughout all of the 60 large and smaller courtrooms and lobbies and corridors, as well as in the office towers, which are closed to the public.
Recently, a series of wall tapestries, Driessen + Van Deijne, was acquired for the Brug Building.
In making acquisitions, the committee looks for ‘unity in diversity’, for real and unique art without museum pretensions. Sometimes a work is a ‘conversation piece’, like the bronze ostriches by the central counter. But what’s most important is an inviting, open and pleasant atmosphere. ‘People who come here are often dealing with a form of conflict,’ says Bauduin. The artworks give them a chance to look at or think about something else for a moment, to feel that there are also beautiful things in life, or even to concentrate on what is coming up. ‘But that’s just homespun psychology, of course,’ adds Baudin.
There’s no intention to make a specific connection with law; only occasionally does jurisprudence play a role. A solitary, modern Beatrix gives a wink at the past, when judgments were still made in the name of the Queen. One of the most recent acquisitions concerns the costumes from ‘Alice in Wonderland’ by the Nederlandse Opera. They will soon be put on mannequins and ‘walk through the building’. ‘The funny thing is, we hardly get any
reactions with a new acquisition. But when a painting is taken down, people miss it.’ And foreign visitors feast their eyes on the works. Then you realize how special it is to see art everywhere in the courthouse.
