Art object: De Meeuwen, 1997
Material: Bronze
Dimensions/height: 3.00 m
Location: in 1997 at the front of the Town Hall, since 1999 it has hung in the hall
Design: Victor van Boven
Controversial art
When building the new part of the town hall, it was decided to purchase a beautiful work of art from the 1% scheme. Landscape architect Victor van Boven was commissioned to design it. The design had to symbolise Zandvoort’s economic engine and geographically fit in with the Gasthuisplein. The original work of art with the beautiful name ‘Zandvoort in motion’ consisted of sails (symbolising the wind), the bronze seagulls symbolised the sea and the sun was expressed in the golden pennants on the masts. Afterwards, the council decided to place the work of art in a water tank that would add value to the work of art and also combat vandalism.
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The artwork initially cost 55 thousand guilders, but with the addition of the water tank the total amount came to no less than 127 thousand guilders. After the artwork was placed, the sails blew over within a day and a number of bronze seagulls were torn from their pedestals a day later. The sails never came back and the seagulls were placed on 3 concrete pedestals in a water tank. Not much was left of the great design and the seagulls were pulled from their pedestals several times and eventually moved inside. The placement of a facade camera never yielded the identity of the perpetrators. In 1998, the financial aspect of the artwork was examined in a TV program ‘over de balk’. The bronze seagulls hang in the hall of the new part of the town hall and look with nostalgia at the place where they would one day be placed.
Victor van Boven
Artist Jacqueline van der Laan was commissioned to make the bronze seagulls. It later turned out that the seagulls were not made by her but by Van Boven. Instead of strict stylistic seagulls, they became fat seagulls. According to Van Boven, the reason for the change was because Van der Laan worked with wax. Because the wingspan of the wings was too large and therefore required too much support during casting, the bronze caster did not like it and wanted a plaster mold. That is why Van Boven made the seagulls himself.