Gevecht om vrijheid

A sculpture about freedom, forged from a single thick steel beam.

The work

Nothing has been added. Everything you see was already in that one beam: heated in a coal forge until the steel went red, then drawn out, split and bent back until it does something you would not expect a beam to do. Only the foot is welded, so that it stands. What started as the heaviest, most stubborn material there is now swings on a single point.

That is exactly what it is about. Freedom here is not emptiness but a struggle with the material: how far can you stretch something before it breaks, and how light can you make what is heavy by nature. The forging shows it — every bend carries the marks of the hammer that put it there.