TURN SIDE | Keerzijde

In the 8th century, Scheybeeck marked the boundary between the Adrichem and Beverhem estates. To this day, this dune ridge forms the municipal boundary between Velsen and Beverwijk.

In the 17th century, Vondel wrote the poem “Beecksangh” at Huize “Scheybeeck”, and in the spring of 1887, Herman Gorter wrote “het heele begin van Mei” (“The very beginning of May”) at Huize “Beecksangh” (‘A new spring, a new sound…’).

TURN SIDE consists of stainless steel strips on decking planks parallel to each other and to the road, but at right angles to the direction of the stream. The strips twist halfway, creating the impression of a silver wave rippling across the shiny surface. At the same time, the strips represent the page layout of a strophic* poem. On the Beverwijk side, Vondel’s Beecksangh has been polished into the surface of some of the strips, and on the Velsen side, a few lines from Gorter’s “Mei” can be read. By lifting the line of the Scheybeeck over the Westelijke Randweg, TURN SIDE connects the history of this place with today’s reality.

In this way, it marks a turning point on the dividing line between two municipalities as the flip side of modern times (?).

*A strophe is a section of a poem between two blank lines; “strophe” comes from the Greek “strophé”, which literally means “turn”.