Zomersprookjes - Dutch coast - 2007
Zomersprookjes (summertales) are seventy tales, poems and soundscapes written for the giant glass shells that ‘washed ashore’ along the Dutch coastline in the summer of 2007, to tell stories.
‘‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the old wise sea could tell us stories about the relativity of our human actions, the motives of happiness and the importance of trust, hope and vulnerability?’’
Seventy writers, poets and sound artists were assigned with this question. The results were remarkable. Stories in which the sea and giant shells express amazement and surprise and fantasize freely from a different awareness of time and space. After listening to or reading the tales, the sea will never be just ‘sea’ again!
In three months time the giant shells visited thirteen locations along the Dutch coast, from the Oerol Festival at Terschelling, to Vlieland, Texel, Hargen aan Zee, Castricum, Heemskerk, Noordwijk, Den Haag, Monster, Westvoorne, Ouddorp, Domburg to Groede in Zeeland.
All of these stories are collected in the book ‘Zomersprookjes’. Besides, the narrated stories by the writers are released on DVD and used as curriculum for schools. The project is partly financed by selling the giant shells at the end of the project.
