PUBLIC SPACE
PROJECTS

GRENZE/GRENSSuderwick / Donxperlo, 2014

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Commentaries by project protagonists and supporters

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Address by Werner Brand, Suderwick, 1. president of the binational citizens’ initiative Dinxperwick

When I came to Suderwick for the first time in 1982, the border was still there and customs officers at both ends of the village carried out their checks, especially of cars with foreign license plates. The woman later to be my wife and I came to Suderwick almost every weekend from Bonn (BN) or the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis (SU) and had to undergo vigorous customs controls when we drove to Dinxperlo to shop. After 1990, our generation witnessed the border being dismantled and the customs officers transferred to the East German border. From narratives collected in this project, we know that previous generations have had other border experiences. If one takes as examples the time before the First World War or before the French Revolution, one gets a completely different picture, which is reflected in the family stories of the Suderwicker peasant families. At that time the confessional division was far more significant than the national border. In the past two generations, much work has been done to make the external border disappear, but the boundaries in the mind still need to be worked on. We can hope that this art project will contribute to this by encouraging cross-border and intergenerational discussions: what can we do in the next two generations to use the confessional, national and other differences to enhance our lives? In order not to hamper our twin villages on the border, but to enrich and promote them?

So this project could contribute in its way to making Dinxperwick a European workshop, if on a small scale. Whether it can then emerge as a beautiful flower as a Euregio or European school in Dinxperwick, that must show the future. Dreams are not only allowed in art ... Commentary by Verena Winter van Reeken & Joop van Reeken, GrenzBlickAtelier, www.grenz-blick.eu

The art project GRENZE / GRENS by Kristina Leko is a cross-border venture in many ways, as it not only connects two villages (Suderwick and Dinxperlo) and two countries (Germany and the Netherlands), but also past and present. Memories become readable for the visitor of the text panels and thus experienceable. Out of the static text a dynamic picture is developed in the reader. The past transcends the virtual border of time and moves into the present, where it experiences a new liveliness. The stories of the people living in this moment touch the heart - and thus become a magical means that may be able to conjure away the limits in the minds. Here art has a special closeness and also openness - and it becomes portable. The memories of the narrators turn into the new memories of the readers or art-observers. There is no ending to the memory chain. The GrenzBlickAtelier is pleased that this special cross-border art project will find a home here in Suderwick and Dinxperlo at least for a while. We would like to remind you of the Japanese proverb: "If you raise your eyes, you can see no boundaries". If the observer casts a glance over the texts of the memories, he or she will no longer see the border, because memories mingle with memories.

Commentary by Hildegard Schouwenburg, Chair of the Grenslandmuseums Dinxperlo/NL, www.grenslandmuseum.nl

The Hellweg or de Heelweg? The Grensland Museum shows the history of the two border communities Suderwick, Germany and Dinxperlo, Netherlands, separated by the Hellweg. Today hardly anyone knows what happened in the course of history. I think it makes sense to confront younger people with this story. In this way, they can incorporate and consider what has happened in the past into their current deliberations and better understand the objections of the older generation. The illustrated panels with the stories of the older generation help the younger generation to understand the story better, leading to improved understanding between young and old.

Everyone would have to wonder how a situation such as there is in Suderwick came into being. Suderwick was originally part of the Dutch community of Dinxperlo. After the Reformation and the associated peace of Münster, the border was redrawn. The part called Suderwick today (Zuider wijk, southern settlement) came to Germany. There were difficulties whenever war broke out. During the First World War, Dinxperlo, wanting to be neutral, left the road, which was used by both Germans and Dutch, to the Germans. This road, the Hellweg, is a main motor route from Westphalia to the Rhineland and back again. A barbed wire fence was erected against today's Dutch sidewalk because of the Dutch wish to remain neutral. During World War II, German soldiers erected the fence against today's German sidewalk. The residents of Suderwick had to endure this situation for 10 years. Since this road was very clear, it was possible, if no customs officers were in sight, to crawl through the barbed wire obstruction to visit relatives or to smuggle from the Dutch side what was not available in Germany. If you want to know more border stories from this period, you can do so by visiting the Grenslandmuseum in Dinxperlo.

Commentary by Johannes Hoven, Heimatverein Suderwick e.V. 

www.heimatvereinsuderwick.de

To start with, Kristina Leko's art project brings local history to people from Suderwick and Dinxperlo. And visitors who like to come to the curiously running national border are also reminded of the "olde Tieden" (old times). Along the way, you will learn about what is possible in Europe today and what needs to be worked on. Without the border, the two villages of Suderwick and Dinxperlo would be quite insignificant. Any attention paid to harmonious border towns is inevitably linked to the European idea and is an incentive to staying active across borders. Kristina Leko intelligently sorts out simple narratives about life on the border, as the residents there felt. She impressively makes their stories, thoughts and feelings visible and tangible. The project complements the existing monuments, the Grensland Museum and other memorabilia of old, long-forgotten times. This is a great opportunity to engage in a varied and interesting search for the past that is either not or only rarely found in history books. At the same time, one can experience how people live the European idea in harmony next to one another. I hope that many people will start to recall and remember. But they should also meet each other. May many old and young Dutch and Germans get into conversation and get to know each other better. I am convinced that they do not only speak in the past tense. Experiences from history can help the present and above all the future in the house of Europe to enjoy excellent coexistence. A personal note. I notice that many memories and descriptions are similar. They inspired me to wonder if I would have different memories or become a different person if my cradle had been in Dinxperlo instead of Suderwick. Even such thoughts can produce art. May the project induce everyone to feel European.

A Commentary by Freek Diersen, Dinxperlo, Chairman of the International Advisory Committee of the municipality

Silence speaks: From my image and experience of the border to now, there is a world of difference. When I think back to the time when I was 10 years old (1956), I am still thinking of strongly separated countries; separated peoples; separated cultures; separate regulations here in Dinxperlo-Suderwick. All this was visible through two barriers and the piece of no man's land in between. People in uniforms moving around and looking after me like a boy of 10 years, giving an "unheimisch" desire to get away as quickly as possible. My parents could not relieve me of this feeling, because of the necessity of visits to a health practitioner (and there were a lot of good ones on the German side). What kind of an obstacle was the border then?! Not for smugglers?

How different the experience is now, what a good feeling it is the tangible physical obstacles are no longer there. That precisely cross-border encounters are based on understanding, distancing, on the added value of, for, and among people. To build bridges and to become "European". In my encounters with citizens on both sides of the border, I get the idea of a shared sense of experience. Of what it was, it is, and what is still to come. The memory, the meeting does one good and provides an impetus for an even better experience. That is heart-warming and makes you stop for a moment to let it get through to you. It is also beautiful that artists are also being constantly inspired by secretive nature of the border. In their "visual way" they stop for a moment to let this speak for us. The Van-Mens-tot-Mens bridge is also a good example of this, but several other silent witnesses also speak this "European language" here on the border in Dinxperwick (fd.). The very different art project of Kristina Leko with text art panels in the village and landscape is another valuable contribution and clearly has its "Grenswerte" (border related values). Let text, images and feelings arise from what a border had and still has ... and then gradually learn:
yesterday is history,
tomorrow is a secret,
today is a gift!
A good experience!