31-08-2009 - 30-11-2009

Publication Building with 7.708 hands' as pdf in Dutch

Website Giant Monument for Leeuwarden

Fries Museum

See also Tiny Tokyo Monument in The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo


Monument for, by and from inhabitants of the Dutch city Leeuwarden.

Martijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden

Fries Museum assigned an art project to Martijn Engelbregt about architecture in Leeuwarden. Engelbregt delivered 45.000 bricks door to door, one for each house in Leeuwarden.

Martijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden

45.000 bricks weigh over 80.000 kilos, which is enough to build three big detached houses.

Martijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, LeeuwardenMartijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden

The bricks were cleaned at a social working place. After cleaning, the bricks were wrapped in colourful paper and a manual was added.

Martijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, LeeuwardenMartijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden

33 homeless delivered the bricks at every house in Leeuwarden.

Martijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden

The manual inside the package invited the people to go to a central square were they could place the brick by themselves.

Martijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden

Martijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, LeeuwardenMartijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden

Anonymous rumours were spread: People claimed that bricks would be used to damage the town instead of building a monument together. Based upon these vague rumours the major of Leeuwarden decided to put a stop to the delivery. Over 10.000 bricks were handed out by that time.
Therefore Engelbregt placed all the left over bricks on the square as a colourful sculpture. People were invited to collect their brick at the square so they could place it straight away.

Martijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden

Watched by a big audience and a lot of media attention Puk and Hiele placed the first brick together.

Martijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden

Eight days in a row people mortared their bricks.

Martijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, LeeuwardenMartijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, LeeuwardenMartijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, LeeuwardenMartijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, LeeuwardenMartijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, LeeuwardenMartijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden

Martijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, LeeuwardenMartijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, LeeuwardenMartijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, LeeuwardenMartijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden

Bas was the first one to write a text on his brick, he did so in order to honour his sister who passed away a year ago. A lot of people followed his example, they wrote all kind of messages for their city on the brick.

Martijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, LeeuwardenMartijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, LeeuwardenMartijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden

Martijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, LeeuwardenMartijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden

Martijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, LeeuwardenMartijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden


After eight days of building the building area was cleared so that the result of 7.708 hands working together was reveiled.

Martijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden

People kept on coming back to show their personal brick and see the result.

Martijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden

Martijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden

After five months the GIANT Monument for Leeuwarden was demolished.

Martijn Engelbregt, EGBG, Kunst, Monument, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden

What remains is the memory and almost 4.000 portraits of people working together on a monument.

 

This is an archive. Please check our latest work here