465
15
hallo
388
480
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70
453
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342
432
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129
360
hallo
380
297
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40
270
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426
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60
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200
115
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50
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Een bloeiend dorp – Heeten - 2001

The idea to literally flower the Salland village Heeten with sunflowers arose from the need to highlight the village culture.

 

The annual festival week in September, the Pony Week, which was held for the fortieth time in 2001, was the prefect occasion. What is a more appropriate symbol than a village full of sunflowers? Festival weeks are embedded in the village culture. It is difficult to ascertain the role and effect of village festivals in a community, but they definitly increase the social cohesion. The positive influence a festival week on a village community is so big, it can be seen as a collective artwork.

 

The sunflower project is a tribute to the, often underexposed strength of village cultures. The sunflower project is originated as the Pony Week: through the effort and strength of the villagers. It thereby symbolizes the concepts of ‘tacit community spirit’ and ‘ineffable obviousness’.

Despite the many prevailing questions and uncertainties around the initiative at the beginning of the year 2001, more than 200,000 sunflowers flowered in Heeten in the autumn of that same year. With astonishing energy, the workgroup Helianthus took the initiative to work together with many volunteers. The right actions were executed at the right moment of time to make the project successful. Many inhabitants, streets, hamlets and schools among others developed their own initiatives with the sunflower as theme. The whole project was recorded in an expressive publication. It has become a wonderful document of historical interest from and for the village Heeten.