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Delft times four: Dutch
visitors make third of four Delft city
stops
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 May 8, 2002
To the average
visitor to Cottonwood County, Delft probably wouldn’t be high
on the person’s list of tourist attractions.
Yet, the
Cottonwood County community of 64, located about seven miles
north of Windom, is becoming world renown, or at least
“Netherlands” renowned. For the second time in two years,
Delft, Minn., has had the pleasure of entertaining visitors
from Delft in the Netherlands.
And in both instances,
Delft was the sole reason they came to Minnesota.
Two
years ago, it was Dr. Peter van der Krogt, a professor at
Utrecht University in the Netherlands, who satisfied 30 years
of curiosity about the Minnesota village.
Last week, it
was Coen de Jong and his wife, Lucia Hazenberg-de Jong, who
trekked halfway around the world to see the rural Cottonwood
County community. Their stop in the Minnesota community is the
second of three trans-global trips they are making to visit
the three “other” Delfts in the world.
Last month, they
visited Delft, South Africa, a city of about 120,000 people
located outside of Cape Town, South Africa. Next month,
they’ll be heading to a Delft in Sri Lanka, which is an island
located just off the southeast tip of India. Delft is in the
northern part of the island.
Why, you ask?
Coen
is an artist, who lives and works in Delft, Holland.
He is
one of four artists commissioned by the City of Delft,
Holland, to create a monumental artwork — art related to
architecture and created in the public space.
“They
wanted an artwork, not just a stainless steel statue to
something,” Coen explains. “It has to do with the people in
Delft and they have asked me, as the first artist, to make a
proposal.
“Since Delft was calling the project ‘Outside
the Walls’ — which they mean as outside the walls of the
gallery — I thought I would really look outside the walls of
Delft.”
In addition to creating the artwork, which is
expected to be completed in August, de Jong will work video of
his travels and interviews with people into the piece. He is
also making a documentary of his visit to the three Delfts.
De Jong will put some of his work on his website at
www.publicgallery.nl within the next couple weeks. The website
is also part of the project and, “part of the public space,”
Coen notes.
The entire project is expected to be
completed in November or December and Coen hopes to be able to
take pieces of his creation back to the Delfts he has
visited.
However, Lucia warns citizens not to get any
preconceived ideas of what form the artwork will
take.
“For Coen, it’s very scary because everybody has
their own ideas and images of their Delft,” Lucia explains.
“Now he has to make an artwork for all these people, who maybe
normally don’t look at art.”
“But that’s one of the
ideas of the project,” Coen says. “It’s two things. It’s to
get people of Delft from all over the world involved in a way
with each other.”
And, geographically, he is getting a
look at Delfts from the four “diamond” corners of the world:
Delft, Minn., to the west; Delft, South Africa, to the south;
Delft, Sri Lanka, to the east; and Delft, Holland, to the
north. Not only are the four cities far apart, but they are
also quite different in their respective makeups.
For
starters, Delft, Holland, is a city of about 100,000 people,
located just 45 minutes from Amsterdam. It is a very clean and
historic city, rich in Dutch heritage.
In contrast,
Delft, Minn., features two dozen houses and 64 people.
Nevertheless, the de Jongs, who had learned a little bit about
Delft from van der Krogt, found the community intriguing and
enjoyed their visit there.
“It’s very small and
peaceful,” Coen says. “And there are so few houses and two big
churches. I mentioned how big they are compared to the
population. So, you can see there were more people, or they’re
expecting more people.
“But it’s nice to walk around,
because it’s so quiet and peaceful. You can hear the birds and
can see the big landscape and the farms.”
Delft, South
Africa, on the other hand, is a bedroom community to Cape
Town. During their visit there, the de Jongs learned that many
of the people there live in the community, but work
elsewhere.
“The town is especially made for people with
low incomes and there are a lot of people who are unemployed,”
Coen says. “It’s really not a very nice place to be, actually;
not a nice place to live.
“There’s no place to work
there. There’s no industry. The crime rate is very, very high.
It’s a really sad place, actually.”
However, Lucia also
sees a positive side to the city.
“The people we met
are so strong,” Lucia says. “You can’t imagine yourself living
there, yet they somehow make it.”
The de Jongs are
actually fortunate to even be able to visit Delft, Sri Lanka.
Coen explains that the country had been involved in a civil
war for the past two decades between Buddhists and Hindus.
However, over the last two years, the fighting has subsided
and as of December, a new government has come into power,
which has brought both peace talks and a cease
fire.
The de Jongs’ timing for their visit to the
country is remarkable.
“It looks very positive,” Coen
says. “They have opened the borders and the roads again and
opened the air space to allow planes into Jaffna (which is
near Delft). So, the chances we can get there are
better.”
Do the de Jongs see anything that ties the
cities of Delft together? In at least one way,
yes.
“Delft, South Africa is very young — just 12 years
old — and so fast-growing and then we talk about our Delft (in
Holland) and it is 750 years old,” says Lucia, who is an
architect in her native Delft. “When the Delft in South Africa
is grown up, it will have all the facilities we have in
Holland.
“But this Delft (in Minnesota) is somehow the
other way around. It had all the facilities and somehow it is
declining. On the other hand, you see new opportunities at the
same time. People will re-evaluate and see what’s nice about
Delft and then move back there.
“So, both cities are
moving.” |
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