The Vrijplaats gives shape to freedom

Humor keeps you going

Fares Hilal from Syria has a generous smile and makes contact easily. He speaks Arabic on his translation app and has someone else record it back. Behind his cheerfulness lies a bitter story. About heavy bombing in Aleppo, his lost home and his sick wife who cannot get the right medicines because of the war. ‘Humour is the only way to stay afloat in miserable situations’, he says laconically. He likes to be creative with words, in poems and stories. He also really wants to work. He studied philosophy, but is also handy. ‘In construction, it doesn’t matter to me. I want to tackle everything,’ he says.

A place of comfort

Every Tuesday afternoon, Wicher Hupkes and Rosa Kijne of Collectief Koppig guide the participants. Making (together) gives meaning to the day, stimulates the imagination, dispels despondency and makes real encounters possible. On the table are all kinds of Dutch proverbs, written on a large sheet of paper and translated into English underneath. Rosa cuts them out. ‘There is a little snake under the grass’ is half on top of ‘Unfortunately peanutbutter’. Next to her, Fares is talking to a Turkish boy. Fares sums up their conversation: ‘The constant waiting makes everyday life difficult for us. Here we get away from that for a while. We enjoy the world around us. We find a lot of comfort in places like this.’

Tangible

Wicher explains that it’s not about teaching people something. ‘It’s about having fun together on an equal footing,’ he says. ‘Secretly, we learn all kinds of things from each other. For me, the impact of a devastating war is far from my bed. Of course, I see images of it and I think it’s bad, but it really changes when you talk to someone who has been in the middle of it. I suddenly see a totally destroyed city in Syria on a screen via Streetview. From someone who navigates me to his own street and points out: ‘Look, that’s where my house once was, for which I worked very hard for twelve years. Gone in one fell swoop.’ Then the grief is suddenly personal and almost tangible.’

Space to discover

The Turkish boy at Fares’ table has only been in Arnhem for three months. While he cuts all kinds of painted shapes out of cardboard, he occasionally holds one up and then asks what you call it. ‘That’s a bicycle with a kind of chicken on it. A chicken bike?’ says Rosa laughing at one. Then she explains that the Vrijplaats is a place where everyone can be themselves. Wait and see, look for inspiration on YouTube, draw, paint, paste your own ideas; It’s all okay. Rosa: ‘Seeing each other’s work, helping each other, doing something together, conversations that it produces, it all connects. Despite the language confusion, you feel here: no matter how different our culture or history is, as human beings we are equal. By offering space, people discover what suits them. Sometimes that takes a while, but who am I to give orders? I prefer to respond rather than prescribe frameworks. It just has to feel good to be here.’

Meeting without words

A woman models a female figure from lilac-coloured clay. She smiles modestly and prefers not to talk, but she likes it when someone stops to look. Very deftly she puts a wafer-thin piece of clay in place, it looks like a protective cloth. Her dedication is touching. Three table companions look up admiringly from their own work. Shyly, the woman stands up. Then she cleans up her things with a big smile. Words are not always needed to meet each other.

Conversations that matter

A little further on, Wicher is engaged in an animated conversation with Fares about philosophy and art. Wicher shows works by Roy Lichtenstein. ‘Everything people think you are, you are not and that’s a lot’, says Wicher. ‘Like you Fares, you come up with Immanuel Kant and Rousseau. Strangely enough, that doesn’t just fit with the image I had of ‘a refugee’. Apparently, without wanting to, I am still prejudiced.’ “You are my teacher,” Fares says to Wicher at the end of the conversation. He responds: ‘You’re a fascinating guy, what a nice conversation this is.’