No more tunnel vision

“I have lived close to the bike tunnel connecting Nazareth and Wittevrouwenveld for 14 years,” says Spanish artist Miguel Pozo Blanco, “and I have seen all kinds of things happening there like drug runnings, people being mugged, or scared to use the tunnel.”

Miguel says he called the police many times to report problems. Incidents were often covered by the local media and gave a bad image to the neighbourhoods.

In 2006 Miguel spoke with Denise Maas, the director of Mondiaal Centrum, where he was exhibiting his work, and suggested to do something about the tunnel. His view was that decorating the tunnel would give an important impulse to the area.

Spanish artist Miguel Pozo Blanco, photo by Stuart Woodburn

Miguel felt that too few structural changes had taken place in his neighbourhood for too many years. This had resulted in missing or neglected resources, such as bike paths, recreational facilities, parking spaces, playgrounds and a community house. He noticed that this stagnation seemed to discourage people from taking action by themselves.

Denise Maas remembered Miguel’s suggestion in 2008 when she started working for housing corporation Woonpunt. She set up a short term project, called “Tunnelvision”, with the aim to involve and connect the inhabitants of the four neighbourhoods adjoining the tunnel (Wittevrouwenveld, Nazareth, Wijckerpoort and Limmel) in finding solutions to the existing problems.

Denise Maas, photo by Stuart Woodburn

The project was initiated at a time when the former Minister for Neighbourhoods and Integration (Wonen, Wijken en Integratie) Ella Vogelaar had decided to set a new course in dealing with problematic neighbourhoods. Money and manpower were invested to tackle urgent issues such as safety. The Minister’s policy was translated at regional level in a document called the “Neighbourhood Actionplan” (Wijckactieplan), in which street safety was clearly prioritised: “Society can only prosper if sufficient safety is guaranteed… In order to solve problems in the street, a specific approach that will bind all parties involved is necessary. This requires cooperation between organisations, professionals and volunteers. The policy is to improve the experience of safety among citizens.”

Denise Maas formed a Project group called Veer-Ein! (Four-one! in the Maastricht dialect) and placed adverts in local papers and on internet-forums to invite artists living in the four north-eastern neighbourhoods around the bike tunnel to volunteer to decorate the tunnel.

Veer-Ein! meeting in Wijkservicepunt Nazareth, photo by Stuart Woodburn

The Dutch ministry for Transport, Public Works and Water management who owns the tunnel, gave permission to paint the tunnel and paid for the equipment. The city council’s amenities committee also gave its fiat for the project.

Tunnel Vision Art Match
The artists met for the first time in August 2008 to learn about the Tunnel Vision Art Match, a competition aiming at selecting the best artwork for the tunnel. Every artist was asked to deliver a concept and a total of 15 concepts were finally submitted.

The artists started working on their designs at the Nazareth church, which is expected to be torn down as part of the restructuring plans related to the new A2 motorway.

Denise Maas and Aat Remkes in discussion in the Nazareth church
photo by Stuart Woodburn

Many inhabitants took advantage of the opportunity to watch the artists at work while brushing up memories of passed services. One of the artists was German autodidact Birgit Pieper, for whom the “magnificent architecture of the church” and its stained glass windows, as well as the company of fellow artists contributed to making the experience enjoyable: “I invited everyone to have a look and visit their church, and in the end many people did. The loneliness that I was used to as a mostly autodidactic painter was replaced by the feeling that I wanted to connect with other passionate artists. I felt at home in the group of mostly professional, but more importantly, enthusiastic artists who learned working efficiently together as a close team.”

Artist Miguel Pozo Blanco at work in the Nazareth Church

Birgit Pieper moved to Wittevrouwenveld in 1982. ”The neighbourhood has become an interesting cultural “village” in town,” she says. “Its inhabitants love to speak of ‘their’ Wittevrouwenveld. ‘We live here and we’re proud of it,’ they say.”

Birgit is pleading with her work for a less one-sided vision of this neighbourhood: “No more Tunnelvision” as she calls it. “I wanted to show this with my painting representing a confident young woman lying on the ground and playing the flute while a white dove is resting nearby.”

Birgit Pieper, photo by Miguel Pozo Blanco

Meanwhile, artist and graphic designer Bert Volkers also had developed some ideas for another tunnel connecting the north-eastern neighbourhoods. Initially he had wanted to decorate it with ”something like a wallpaper”, showing a repetive pattern on the walls of the “Kindertunnel”. Together with the artists of the Veer-Ein! group he finally managed to achieve an already much admired but slightly different project. Children of the local primary schools ’t Spoor’ in Nazareth and the children club Happy Kids in Wittevrouweveld made colourful paintings and Bert “translated” them on his computer into mural paintings.

“I also took part in the contest for the best design in the bike tunnel,” Bert explains. “I used the idea of “Mr Clean” because I was annoyed with all the rubbish that was dumped there.” He hopes that his design will have an educational effect. He used a special airbrush technique to recreate Mr Clean’s shiny and observing eyes.

Bert Volkers, photo by Stuart Woodburn

Mr Clean, by Bert Volkers, photo by Miguel Pozo Blanco

Bert made six more variations of Mr Clean. His works called “Batman”, “Superman”, “Rambo”, “Devil” and “Biker” were exhibited during the recent ArtTour, at the newly refurbished Rijdam-factory in Nazareth. (The works can still be seen until the end of May.)

Graffiti artists
In order to limit the risk of illegal graffiti, a group of graffiti artists called “Opdemuur” (“On the wall”) was assigned to decorate the parts of the bike tunnel that had not been painted by the artists. Passers-by can enjoy the scene from the comic book Top Cat in vivid colours.

Top Cat graffiti, photo by Miguel Pozo Blanco

Many people helped to make the tunnel more appealing. Apprentices of the learn-and-work project SPOS painted the ceiling in light green. The walls of the tunnel entrances glow in dark red. Volunteers even came from other Maastricht neighbourhoods as far as Blauwdorp on the other side of the Meuse river.

Damages
Unfortunately there are not only good news to tell about this project. There were problems in finding a company who would agree to plaster the tunnel walls for the budgeted price. The time schedule was delayed because the artists had to wait for the preparation works to be completed. All the artworks were applied only a week before the official opening on 23 May during the ArtTour.

Artworks were tagged with graffiti on a daily basis and the artists repeatedly had to remove spray paint from the protecting layer. Some damage was caused by fire and one work was even completely destroyed before the jury of inhabitants and professionals had a chance to take a proper look at it.

Damaged work, photo by Miguel Pozo Blanco

Destroyed art work, photo by Antje Ritter Woodburn

Both the bike tunnel and the Kindertunnel were officially opened on 23 May and Maastricht councillor Wim Hazeu announced the winner of the Tunnel Vision Art Match competition: Dutch artist Jacqueline Wassen. Her work “Kamikaze Angel” was chosen because it shows the reality of the neighbourhood, people racing like kamikaze drivers through the tunnel. The jury was especially impressed by the professional quality of the artist and her inventive collage-technique.

Kamikaze Angel by Jacqueline Wassen, winning art work, photo by Miguel Pozo Blanco

As for Stuart Woodburn, the British photographer whose contribution had been destroyed, councillor Hazeu encouraged him to reprint his work and attach it to the wall again.

Although he is sad about the damages, Miguel still nurtures the hope that the tunnels will have a positive effect: “The tunnels are the first leaf to turn our neighbourhood green. This leaf will give people the hope that things can change. It is essential that the people will want to take the initiative themselves.”

By Antje Ritter Woodburn

Antje Ritter-Woodburn is a German expat in Maastricht

The following artists have contributed to the Veer-Ein! project:
Rob Schrijen
Aat Remkes
Ester Janssen
Rineke Kroon
Sona Hovanes
Ernest Spronken
Stuart Woodburn
Margriet van der Stok
Angelie de Bie
Jacqueline Wassen
Miguel Pozo Blanco
Bert Volkers
Birgit Pieper
And the children taking part in the “comic drawing” course at the Kumulus school of arts.

Official Opening of the tunnels on 23 May 2009
(photographs by Stuart Woodburn)

Councillor Wim Hazeu opens the Kindertunnel…

… accompanied by bike club “De Maastrappers”

Wim Hazeu opens the bike tunnel

Wim Hazeu thanks artist Ernest Spronken for his contribution