Dearest
At the entrance gate of the Daelwijck cemetery in Utrecht, there is a small white letterbox with the words “To my beloved” written on it. Letters, poems and drawings sent here will also be delivered. We owe this to Ingeborg Meulendijks.
Forgotten, crooked graves, half-withered flowers. It leaves no one unmoved, a walk through a cemetery where sadness and resignation are almost tangible in the silence. Yet everyone experiences the death of a loved one differently, and when it comes to mourning ceremonies, much has changed in the Netherlands in recent years. Secularisation, immigration and increasing individualisation are leaving their mark on mourning and its rituals. Anthropologists and sociologists love this because the way we deal with death says so much about the important values and beliefs within our culture. How we shape the most profound moment in a person's life tells us not only about the deceased, but above all about the bereaved. Of course, this also leaves its mark on the visual level. A grave or a permanent memorial are no longer a given, but the need for a place to reflect on the loss has remained.
Funeral directors in Utrecht, in collaboration with the Culture Department of the Municipality of Utrecht, therefore invited four artists to submit designs for a memorial that reflects our multifaceted approach to death.
Oak
This summer, a special pavilion was installed at the Daelwijck cemetery in Utrecht by visual artist Ingeborg Meulendijks. The artwork is called To My Beloved and responds to the universal, deeply human need to say something to a loved one who has passed away. The perspective of the bereaved is central here. Three segment-shaped hollow walls of sand-coloured brick bend around a tall oak tree on a lawn. You reach it via a winding path of pebbles of almost the same colour, after passing two (picnic) benches in the same design. The oak tree and the structure form a single image. According to some, an oak tree symbolises the connection between heaven and earth, but I suspect that such interpretations have been deliberately left open. Inviting writing niches have been created in the outer walls; you can sit on a stool in front of a built-in writing tablet where pen and paper are already laid out for a message to the deceased. But then what? For now, the notes can be slipped through a grille in the wall, entrusted to the ravages of time. Does Saint Peter collect the mail? That is by no means a given these days, and it doesn't really matter. In any case, sending thoughts can be very comforting for the sender.
From a letter to Andreas: ‘Yesterday, I felt you close to me again: I was sitting on a swing, and you were pushing me. I felt your warm hand on my lower back.’ The Belgian organisation ‘IJs voor iedereen’ (Ice cream for everyone) also collects letters to deceased loved ones and posts excerpts from them on a website; a moving collection. But in Utrecht, the letters remain secret within the walls under the crown of an oak tree.
Dedication
But back to the sculpture. What is striking is the enormous dedication with which the whole thing has been designed and made using traditional techniques. No detail has been left to chance. The wall segments fan out slightly, creating a subtle dynamic that can be seen as a reference to the cycle of life. The path and benches form a unity with it. The roof construction is made of oak with beautiful mortise and tenon joints. The subtle nuances in the hand-moulded bricks made of light clay, partly glazed transparent. More and more personal memorial tiles made of the same material can gradually be added to the interior walls. They are already ready, still unengraved, and in the designated places the bricks are set a little deeper, which in itself creates a lively pattern. The writing niches with their wonderful shape are reminiscent of a sarcophagus, but are ultimately not associated with any particular religion. They appear to have been made of ceramic during a three-month working stay at the European Ceramic Work Centre. The pebbles on the ground have been sorted by colour by hand. All the steps in the creative process can be followed in detail at www.aanmijnliefste.nl; it is enjoyable to read and commands admiration.
Meulendijks, who also teaches at the Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts, is an artist who has been exploring the role and significance of architectural elements in reflection and contemplation for many years. In 2009, she designed a chapel for reflection for a nursing home in Delfshaven with a variety of functions. The result, in which a lot of wood has been used, is also modest here and testifies to an enormous attention to materials and details. It is a great asset that artists are involved in the design of public spaces, if only because they are uniquely capable of expanding that space into the supernatural.
By Beatrijs Schweitzer, author of BeeldenMagazine 3#2017