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Jan Snoeck, La nostalgie de la lumière Totaal, Paul Eluard, 2000 Center of The Hague: Spui - Grote Marktstraat - Kalvermarkt Recognizable and accessible are the images of Jan Snoeck (1927). Everyone knows their worm-shaped figures. In the course of his career he has realized many in the squares and on the streets of our country. In the beginning Snoeck made sculptures of stone, wood and metal. Sometimes these are abstract sculptures, but sometimes also almost figurative images, such as his 'Grater' in The Hague. He has been working in clay since the 1960s. The sculptor switched to this material because he wanted to work with color. Characteristic of the visual language that Snoeck has developed is its simplicity. He reduces all things to their essence. Snoeck finds inspiration for this in archaic, Greek and Egyptian sculpture, for example. In addition, he feels related to the ancient American civilizations. In the textiles, painting and graphics that Snoeck has made, you encounter a similar visual language as in his images: soft, clear shapes and mostly primary colors. The moment Snoeck started working in clay, a theme immediately arose that continued to run through his oeuvre: the worm. This shape also occurs in its plinth image. The worm is the most rudimentary form you can make in clay. It is a primal form that for Snoeck refers to man and at the same time to the divine. Like humans, the worms lie, stand, sit and walk. The worm for the base image sits comfortably on a chair.
For his pedestal image, the sculptor chose the poetic name: La nostalgie de la lumière overall (literally: the nostalgia of total light) as title. It appears to be a line from a poem by Snoeck's beloved French writer / poet Paul Eluard. As in his other work, for Snoeck this pedestal image is ultimately about the essence of man.

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Peter Otto, Twisted Totem, 2004 Center The Hague: Spui - Grote Marktstraat - Kalvermarkt. A strange bronze creature with remarkably recognizable attributes. Ambiguous and at the same time unclear, that is irritating to a viewer 'Twisted Totem' by Peter Otto (1955) in the center of The Hague. Otto wanted to make an image that 'openly encourages mockery or spitting, against which one can water or , as in Mecca, can throw stones to drive out Satan. An image that provides access to imperfection and incompleteness, which offers an opportunity to make a wish or to lay a flower. Hence the details with a mug, a plate (offerings for gods and ancestors), the walking stool for the paralyzed foot, the rifle that does not become a rifle, but a hand gesture, perhaps a long nose. " The artist created this pedestal image as a reaction to the many images in public space that mark an event or person, which serve as a reminder, worship or commemoration or which are only for embellishment. The work is inspired by the so-called "Talking Pictures" in Rome. There have been sculptures in streets and squares since the 16th century, where the townspeople can express their criticism of politics and society in the form of poems and texts. In his early paintings Otto drew inspiration from the 'Wild Painting' by artists such as Georg Baselitz and Markus Lüpertz, in the mid-eighties he became more impressed by the work of the American painter Philip Guston (1913-1980). Otto particularly admires the radical way in which Guston combined classical themes with images from everyday culture. Just like Guston, Otto's knowledge of art history, the harshness of reality and everyday trivialities come together. The result is an intriguing world in which order and chaos, good and evil coexist and intertwine: 'Twisted Totem'

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