Sunrise over Ockenburgh

Before dawn I climbed up into one of the dunes between Ockenburgh and the seaside. These dunes are “artificial” in a double respect. First they where "build" after the war from the masses of rubblestone and concrete left by the German occupier. Whole neighbourhoods were broken down to build and fortify the Atlantikwall. That project was was put into action after the big Northsea flood of 1953.

Again as a “fortification” against that allways threatening “enemy” the sea, with its rising levels especially during springtide in combination with heavy Southwest storm. From the ruïns of war a “new” fortification was build just behind the “natural’ dunes and it was shaped as duny look-a-likes. There are visible differences in vegetation between both kinds of dunes because of the soil structure. But for the rest you must know history to understand in what respect the so called “Rubble-Dunes” are man-made.

And now the second aspect of artificiality of two of the Rubble Dunes. In 1992 the famous American artist James Turrell has build on top of two prominent Rubble-Dunes his Celestial Vault Project. It is too much to give you the fundamentals of this great work of land- and sky-scape art.

I will tell and show you more, sky-pictures and explanation later on. But I can assure you, it is fascinating what you can experience up there, lying on your back, head down, feet up. You have never seen “the sky” before. You are subject to a process of deep change once you really enter into Turrell’s art and let it happen. For today’s morning exercice it should be enough to give you an impression of sunrise from there. From my standing position firmly grounded in wartime debris, the strong seawind in my back I had at least a real Peakexperience.