Photo Resource They stand out, the elevator walls in the older part of the Leeuwenborch. The colorful walls, made of small stones, form a beautiful mosaic of vertical strokes. On each of the seven building levels, the colors are different. From blue to orange-brown, green, red and yellow. Always two colors per floor.
And it is a work of art, that is. A work “untitled” by the conceptual artist Hans Koetsier (1930-1991). He made it especially for the Leeuwenborch, that was completed in 1974. But time nibbles at the work. Half a century of elevator use has left its mark.
Humidity damage
In the basement of the Leeuwenborch, Zoltan Varro began restoration work today. Not without reason, he started in the basement: the damage is worst here. Especially the lower part of the wall looks bad. Due to rising moisture, numerous tiles have come loose or are about to fall off the wall.
‘The moisture can’t go anywhere’, Varro explains. ‘Because the tiles are made of glass. Beautiful Murano glass. As a result, the moisture can’t evaporate.’ Replacing them therefore makes no sense. They would eventually come off again anyway. As a solution, it was therefore decided to replace the bottom 30 cm of the tiles with a stainless steel plate with air holes.
Hans Koetsier is considered part of the international Fluxus movement, which includes his somewhat better-known colleagues Willem de Ridder and Wim T. Schippers. Fluxus wanted to strip art of its pomposity and bring it closer to everyday life. Koetsier’s mosaics are not only beautiful, but also serve as floor markers.
It is a wall decoration, made of very beautiful material.
Zoltan Varro, restorator
Varro, by the way, explicitly does not call the mosaic art. ‘It is a wall decoration, made of very beautiful material.’ That Murano glass used in these mosaics is still being made. He even found the exact same colors. In a box next to him are the four colors for the basement and first floor, which will be taken care of over the next five weeks.
Lost
Originally, moreover, Koetsier’s artwork was more extensive than the mosaics. He also made round colored panels for each floor that were attached to the walls. However, these were lost or discarded during previous renovations. Possibly because it was not recognized as art.
Translated using DeepL.
