Photo Roelof Kleis The artwork to the right of the main entrance to the campus must be moved indoors. Fuga, a work by visual artist Ubbo Scheffer, is made of black marble and wood. The wood is starting to rot. The WUR Art Committee is therefore looking for a new home for the work. Staff and students are invited to contribute ideas.
Fuga consists of two backward-leaning L-shapes made of wood and black marble. The name refers to the musical composition fugue, in which the theme (the melody) returns in slightly different variations. In addition to being a visual artist, Scheffer was also a musician and played the violin in a string quartet.
Dreijenborch
The artwork was purchased by the municipality of Wageningen in 1983. It was given a place on the Dreijen, near the Dreijenborch building. This was against Scheffer’s wishes, as he felt that it did not come into its own there. When the Dreijenborch was demolished, the sculpture was moved to its current location on campus in 2009. Scheffer did not live to see this.
More than 40 years later, the sculpture still looks good, but appearances can be deceiving. ‘Where wood and stone meet, water collects and causes the wood to rot,’ explains Marijn Blok of the WUR Art Committee. ‘The artwork belongs to the municipality. We have it on loan, which is an extra reason to take good care of it.’
Accessible
‘I would prefer to leave it outside, but covered’, says Blok. ‘That way, it remains accessible to the public. Another option is to move it indoors, preferably to a building that is accessible to everyone. The courtyard garden of Lumen, for example, would be suitable. Then it would still be visible from the outside.’
But other options are also possible. Professor Marten Scheffer, the artist’s cousin, would like to see the work in Forum. ‘Fuga is a beautiful symbol of the way generations interact on campus. One voice sets a theme, the next voice picks up on it in a way that takes the whole thing to a completely new level.’
Magic
‘Isn’t that how our students shake us up with their unique perspective on the themes we as teachers once started with?’, says Scheffer. ‘Food, the climate, the role of scientists in a world full of tensions. I think the idea and magic of a fugue is a very beautiful metaphor for what happens here on campus.’
Where Fuga will be located is still completely open. It’s a question that the Art Committee and Scheffer would like input on from students and staff. They are therefore calling on everyone to send their ideas to the editors of Resource.
Translated with DeepL.com
