Hasselt Young people who are still in a doorgangscel must be in the office of the local police Limburg Region Capital (LRH) are now actually in the middle of a work of art. The students of Artistic education of institutes ‘Pikoh’, were allowed to enjoy themselves on the four interior walls. The result? More feeling of space and soothing colours of the traumatic experience should alleviate it.
The holding cells for minors, are separate from other police cells in the building. But they saw, until recently, still as gray and oppressive as all the others. “We have so thoroughly changed this,” shows student Boran Verstraeten proud. “We have a painting by Roy Lichtenstein taken, and that reflects on each of these four interior walls. The advantage is that there are enough elements in that painting sitting around for a distraction. Hopefully should not be too many people from our work ‘enjoy’. But if it should, they have now a nicer environment than just four concrete walls.”
a Teacher-artist Stijn Thys supervised the whole project. “The atmosphere in those cells is now completely different. It all looks familiar, and we have especially sought how we the residents could ‘calm down’ with our art. One cell, therefore, has a lot of green colors from a work of Edward Hopper. You can right through a window ‘look’ and see if especially the tighter horizontal lines. The painted latch on the inside of the cell is a playful element. Maybe put the minors on to a better path of life to choose? That of a rebellious artist, for example.”
