The artwork had stood in Presikhaaf for over fifty years when it faced the threat of demolition. As familiar landmarks from the members’ childhood vanished—together with the housing blocks in which they had grown up—they began to question the forces reshaping their surroundings: Whose neighborhood is this? Who holds the power to decide its history and future?
Through this intervention, they did more than prevent the disappearance of a sculpture. They laid claim to their own environment, asserting the right to participate in decisions about what is preserved, displaced, or erased—and, in doing so, carved out space for their histories within the narrative of 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 public artworks 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.
The theme of 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 I
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).
Unable to find an artistic base in Presikhaaf, the collective could set up camp in the South-Rotterdam district of Oud-Charlois, with support by the municipality. There, they built a cinema and organised a second film screening and expert meeting in response to a new threat to the artwork.
Prop
After the director’s departure, the Open Air Museum announced it no longer wished to keep the sculpture. The young curators were offered two choices: return it to Presikhaaf (where its existence was unsure in the first place), or downgrade the work to a “prop” and move it elsewhere in the museum, more specifically to a part of the museum dedicated to the post-war era of reconstruction.
This, however, is difficult, as the Great Meadow, where Abstract Object was placed, carries a special symbolic meaning: 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 II
On October 4, 2025, a second closed screening took place as the start of an expert meeting. The aim of this gathering was 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?” Just as ongoing is the conversation with the Open Air Museum about the fate of the artwork.
