The public space: Maastricht’s largest museum

Where church towers once dominated the city’s skyline, more and more factory buildings began to spring up in the^mid-19th century. Maastricht was the Netherlands’ first industrial city, and its most important industrialist was Petrus Regout (1801–1878). A bronze statue of the entrepreneur was erected in front of his former Sphinx factories on Boschstraat in the late 1960s. A controversial figure: in Maastricht, Regout was synonymous with the exploitation of workers. That dark side of the flourishing industry was particularly evident in the Stokstraat neighbourhood. Workers from the pottery factories lived there with large families, crammed into small, damp one-room flats. The neighbourhood has since become a luxury shopping district, where the bronze statue of the fictional Pieke oet de Stokstraot still serves as a reminder of life in this working-class neighbourhood in the 1930s. Elsewhere in the city, in the courtyard garden of a block of flats in the Sphinx Quarter, you’ll find the work *Siamese Sphinx* by the artist duo * Les Deux Garçons*. In this sculpture, the creators incorporated the faces of two English engravers who worked for Regout’s Sphinx factories around 1880.

From the 1960s and 1970s onwards, the cultural climate in Maastricht began to change. Progressive artists shook the sleepy art institutions and academies out of their slumber. The approach to art in public spaces also changed: from figurative to conceptual and abstract. New works were no longer aimed at decorating the city, but sought to convey an idea. International art movements made their appearance. This breath of fresh air brought with it works by local and international artists. For example, in front of the Tax Office you can see *Overhand Knot* (1989) by the Japanese-American artist Shinkichi Tajiri; at the ‘ Bonnefanten ’, *Long Pyramid* (1990) by the American Sol LeWitt, and on Parkweg, Lijn in beweging (1997) by the Limburg sculptor Piet Killaars. Works by the latter can be seen in several locations across the city. For example, five-metre-high vertical elements stand at the entrance to the MECC conference centre. Several of his abstract artworks have even been installed in and around the Provincial Government of Limburg .

From sculptures to commemorative plaques and from statues of saints to fountains: the City of Maastricht boasts hundreds of works of art in public spaces. Sometimes their installation was met with resistance regarding location, design or cost. But despite the occasional controversy, the people of Maastricht – and often visitors too – have grown fond of the many statues. This is also evident from the traditions that have developed around some of them. For instance, people gather at the Limburg Liberation Monument on Koningsplein during the annual Remembrance Day ceremony. In Aldenhof Park, a wreath is always laid at the feet of the bronze musketeer d’Artagnan on the anniversary of his death, 25 June. On Carnival Saturday, the city prince places a wreath of vegetables around the shoulders of ’t Mooswief on the Markt, whilst on the following Tuesday, dozens of brass bands gather on the Vrijthof near the sculpture group De Zaate Herremenie.