Overtoom rehabilitation centre swaps graffiti for murals

For years, the bare side wall of the Reade rehabilitation centre on the Overtoom annoyed passers-by, neighbours, staff and clients.

So did the 80-metre wall in front of the building, which was covered in graffiti. Both have now been turned into colourful artworks.

Every year Reade repainted the front wall, and every year new slogans, often unfriendly ones, soon appeared again, says Joris van der Poel of the Reade Foundation.

Looking for a lasting solution, the centre teamed up with STRAAT Museum to paint the wall itself and take on the side wall too.

“In the war against graffiti, we actually embraced graffiti,” he says.

A woman pulling herself up

Rotterdam artist Marije Maria designed ‘Veerkracht in de stad’ (Resilience in the city) for the side wall.

The 14-metre-high painting shows a woman pulling herself upward and represents the rehabilitation process.

“She climbs up towards her new life, her new reality,” Van der Poel explains. The building now shows the outside world what happens inside.

“You want something that does justice to what they do here,” Marije Maria says.

“The word that came up most in the conversations I had here was ‘uplifting’. I wanted to do something with that.”

Messages from patients and neighbours

Graffiti artist OPZICH covered the 80-metre street wall with positive slogans.

Before former culture minister Hedy d’Ancona officially unveiled both works on Friday 25 September, staff, current and former patients and local residents added their own messages to his work.

“Growth starts with one step,” wrote 11-year-old Esil Lina, who is recovering after the removal of a cyst in her head, her parents say.

She started out in a wheelchair and now walks along the wall on her own.

The Reade Foundation is selling reproductions of ‘Veerkracht in de stad’, signed and numbered by Marije Maria.

The money will pay for a playground in the inner garden, where children in rehabilitation and children whose parents are in rehabilitation can play together.

If you’d like to see more work by the street artists behind STRAAT Museum, check out our guide to Amsterdam’s newer museums.

Source: De Westkrant