#kunsttour

[franticlawnmower]

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#Sphinkskwartier #maastricht #kunsttour ach ja.. ik kon er wel om lachen (bij Eiffelgebouw Maastricht)

[a-landing-place]

Searching for Mosasaurus (part 2)

We headed to Maastricht to catch the opening of KUNSTTOUR NU, a city-wide exposition that involved several galleries and art spaces that opened up to public. We went for the main one at the Timmerfabriek. I was truly quite disappointed at the works that were on show. They were mostly either sorely lacking in technique or were questionably (too) conceptual. Still, it was nice to see what was going on contemporary art-wise, and I spotted several german and dutch post-expressionist painting trends. (Marrying the low with the high, a penchant for angry graffiti-like scribbles, usage of lots of spray paint, epoxy, various textures, naive-looking art…)

We stayed at this amazing kasteel somewhere on the fringes of maastricht. It was the first time Sig and I were in a proper Hotel, so that was a nice change and probably superficial milestone in our pragmatic relationship (hahah, kidding). There was this steam-punk inspired, tim burton looking sculpture on the kasteel grounds. It looked like a cross between the loch ness monster and the Mosasaurus...

Anyway the kasteel was situated in the midst of farmland and small forests and it was so lovely to be wandering around with the smell of fresh dewy grass and leaves and tree bark in the morning.

After saying our goodbyes to Lennart and Ron, we finally got to go for a tour of one of the limestone quarries! We got to see the Grotten Zonneberg, a man-made "cave" or rather, now disused limestone quarry. This was one of the quarries where they found Mosasaurus fossils and other various fossils and bones from the Cretaceous period. Europe used to be under a body of water during this era. So there were tons of deposits of Cretaceous sea flora and fauna that were probably buried under layers and layers of earth on this part of the world. And since this was a quarry, a lot of these fossils were discovered during the 18th-19th century. After the use of these quarries became obsolete, they started holding tours, and that was how these charcoal paintings on the walls came about. 

Something really interesting in the history of these man-made tunnels was that during the war, there were discussions to build a whole underground city for the refuge of the people of Maastricht. There were ovens for baking bread, and even a church altar in one of these tunnels. Fortunately they did not get to utilise the quarry for this purpose as they forgot to consider the problem of sanitation for thousands of people should they be living underground!

The charcoal drawings were aesthetically very pretty and in the context of these pitch dark limestone caves, all the more fun to experience. Kind of a gimmick maybe, but it was like discovering something prehistoric (except they weren't). The infamous Mosasaurus bones that were found were apparently in the Natural History museum, so off we went!

Alas, we found out that the bones were already taken by the french several centuries ago, and what was left in the museum was a cast of the original. Still, very interesting. In scale, very very scary. What I really loved about the museum was a room preserved to look like what it did in the 19th century. It really reminded me of the amazing Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris which I actually accidentally stumbled into. There were taxidermies and strange creatures in flasks displayed in cabinets.

There was also a small garden at the back of the museum and the most beautiful grotesque main door, which apparently had casted fish heads for the creatures poking out of the façade...

So the journey in search of the history and presence of the Mosasaurus ends here. 

[kunsttour]

NU  |  NOW  |  JETZT  |  MAINTENANT

[kunsttour]

NU  |  NOW  |  JETZT  |  MAINTENANT

[kunsttour]

NU  |  NOW  |  JETZT  |  MAINTENANT

[kunsttour]

NU  |  NOW  |  JETZT  |  MAINTENANT

[kunsttour]

[kunsttour]