The work had stood in Presikhaaf for over fifty years and was threatened with demolition. As the visual elements of their childhood — along with the demolished homes they had lived in — disappeared, three young members of P1 asked themselves: Whose neighborhood is it? Through the intervention they claimed ownership of their space within Dutch national heritage.
“We lifted the eight-meter-high steel sculpture out of Presikhaaf with a crane and loaded it onto a truck. That same day, after closing time, we drove in a convoy of cars and trucks into the museum grounds.”
— Sara Amraoui
The collective deliberately bypassed the museum’s experts and decision-makers. The director’s approval (“we’re doing this guerilla-style!”) was sufficient to carry out the operation. The only staff informed in advance were the security guards, moments before arrival.
#beeldenpark_presikhaaf
The relocation of Abstract Object took place within the project #thisisprikko X #beeldenpark_presikhaaf, initiated and guided by Ikram El Messaoudi, in dialogue with Sara Amraoui, Zainab Amraoui, and Nabil Zahti.
Claudia Schouten (#beeldenpark_presikhaaf) sparked the young people’s curiosity about the stories behind the art in their neighborhood. Under the guidance of Ikram and Claudia, they developed a podcast route along Presikhaaf’s artworks, combining literary research with personal experiences and observations.
Ownership emerged again and again: who decides on the placement or demolition of artworks? Whose neighborhood is it? Zainab Amraoui summed it up in her question about a vanished artwork from her childhood: “But who asked you?”
Film Screening & Expert Meeting
In a film by Rick Peters, we follow Zainab, Sara, and Nabil in their attempt to safeguard the sculpture within the Open Air Museum. During the relocation, existing power structures become visible: who decides where the artwork belongs? Who defines national heritage?
The first large-screen screening took place on December 19, 2022, at Filmhuis Focus Arnhem, during a closed meeting with State Secretary for Culture Gunay Uslu, at the invitation of, and together with, alderman for culture and neighborhoods, Cathelijne Bouwkamp.
In line with the words of the State Secretary during the Huizinga Lecture (2022), P1 argues that heritage should not be passively endured but requires active and creative acts. After the film, a discussion followed with the junior curators on art and cultural spaces in Arnhem-North, particularly Presikhaaf 1 (P1).
Although this was not possible there, the collective found a home in the Rotterdam district of Oud-Charlois, supported by the municipality of Rotterdam. There, they built a cinema, and now that the sculpture is under threat, they are organizing a second film screening and expert meeting there on October 4, 2025.
Prop
After the director’s departure, the Open Air Museum announced it no longer wished to keep the sculpture on the Great Meadow. That location carries a special symbolic meaning for Abstract Object. The curators were offered two choices by the museum: to downgrade the work to a “prop” elsewhere in the museum, or to return it to Presikhaaf.
National Historical Folk Festival 1919 – the Great Meadow
The museum was originally founded to conserve the disappearing rural way of life. During the National Historical Folk Festival in 1919, no fewer than 400,000 people visited the museum, many dressed in various Dutch regional costumes. For the occasion, three ten-meter-high shooting poles were erected on the Great Meadow as an expression of Dutch nationalism. After more than a century, the wooden poles succumbed to rot. In 2021, Abstract Object was placed on the very same site.
Expert Meeting – Film Screening October 4, 2025
On October 4, 2025, the second closed screening will take place as the start of an expert meeting. The aim of this gathering is to reflect collectively on how to preserve Abstract Object on the Great Meadow for the next hundred years, just as the Shooting Poles once held their meaning for a century.
The documentary about the intervention, Abstract Object (1967–2025), remains a work in progress. It is partly documentary, partly an ongoing artistic inquiry, with the central question: “Who rewrites unwritten history?”
