Fontein Maashaven

The Artwork

In the Maashaven, on the occasion of the Paleis Maashaven project, an artwork by Jeroen Jongeleen was unveiled in February 2022. SIR asked him to make an intervention in this area, on the border between Charlois and Feijenoord. Jongeleen found it a tricky question because of area development and encroaching gentrification. In such trends, art is often instrumentalized in a way that does not benefit the residents, quite the contrary.

In this area, in a corner of the water, Jongeleen discovered a water outlet that occasionally lets water bubble up or spray up. He decided to label this an ‘objet trouvé’ as a fountain. An incongruous and unpredictable fountain, a ‘punk version’ rather, which is at odds with the neatly designed design drawings for the park planned in the Maashaven. His fountain is an ode to the frayed edges and crease zones, to the city that does not try to pretend to be better than it is. Moreover, this is a work of art that cannot be encapsulated in the city marketing in which art likes to be used as hip and ‘street’ art. Because this park is being built right where the fountain is. It is one or the other.