De Nollen near Den Helder

The deeper story

De Nollen lies on the edge of Den Helder, where railway lines, roads, buildings and inland dunes meet. For a long time, the site had an undefined character. Low dunes, water, rough vegetation, bunkers and storage areas were scattered across it, but little suggested a coherent whole. It was neither a conventional nature reserve, nor a recognisable monument, nor a designed park.

From 1980, artist R.W. van de Wint began working here. He did not simply place sculptures in the landscape, but made the landscape itself part of his art. Ground, water, bunkers, paths, differences in height and light were incorporated into one slowly developing whole.

De Nollen therefore cannot be understood at a glance. Low dunes and grass form the first layer. Then reddish-brown steel forms, painted spaces and bunkers half absorbed into the earth begin to appear. The site does not function like a museum hall filled with separate objects, but as a landscape in which every turn and change of viewpoint reveals something new.

The military remains are an important part of that landscape. The bunkers from the Second World War were neither removed nor displayed separately as war memorials. Van de Wint incorporated them into his work. In some places they remain clearly recognisable as concrete defensive structures. Elsewhere they become dark spaces, supports for colour or heavy forms within the dunes.

Their meaning changes without erasing their past. The bunkers remain remnants of war, but at the same time they form part of a new art landscape. Concrete, sand, steel, paint, grass and water do not stand beside one another as separate layers, but merge.

The inland dune landscape also determines how De Nollen is experienced. A nol is a low dune or sandy rise. These small undulations guide sightlines and cause artworks to appear and disappear. The terrain is not a flat surface on which art has been placed. Movement through the landscape is part of the work.

Many forms are made of weathering steel. Under the influence of rain, wind, salt and time, the metal develops a reddish-brown surface. Its colour suits sand, dune grass and weathered concrete. In strong sunlight, the steel can stand sharply against the sky, while on a grey day it seems almost to sink back into the ground.

Colour plays an equally important role. Van de Wint worked as a painter, sculptor and builder. Some interiors resemble paintings that can be entered. Other works behave like walls, tunnels or signs in the landscape. The boundary between painting, sculpture and architecture begins to disappear.

De Nollen became Van de Wint’s life’s work. He continued building, painting and changing the site for many years. The landscape never received one final, completed form. It still appears to be moving, as though wind, rust, vegetation and light continue the work.

After his death in 2006, the site remained as a complete legacy. Stichting De Nollen manages the area and allows access under guidance. This limited form of access suits the character of the place. Its meaning lies not only in individual works, but in the relationship between routes, spaces, sightlines and landscape.

The old frayed city edge has not entirely disappeared. Vegetation remains rough, paths are irregular and concrete masses sometimes rise unexpectedly from the sand. The place has been carefully shaped, but not polished smooth. That allows the history of the terrain to remain tangible.

Den Helder itself also resonates through De Nollen. The city was shaped by the sea, navy, war, railways, canals and reconstruction. In De Nollen, those elements return as wind, sand, concrete, steel and open space. The military past has not been fixed here in a traditional monument, but transformed into a landscape.

The site therefore contains several lives. It has been dune ground, military terrain, neglected city fringe, storage area, studio and workplace. It is now an art landscape in which those older layers remain present.

The large steel works attract attention, but they are no more important than the bunkers, water features, low dunes and rough vegetation. Only through their relationship does Van de Wint’s achievement become clear: not a collection of sculptures, but a landscape in which war remains and art continue to influence one another.

De Nollen shows that a difficult place does not have to be tidied away in order to gain new meaning. The bunkers were not erased and the dune ground was not transformed into a neat park. The roughness remained and became part of the work.

De Nollen is therefore more than an art site. It is an old edge-landscape that received a second life without losing its past. In rusting steel, grass against concrete, low dunes and open sky, war, neglect, art and recovery merge.