Relocation of Spacebulbs (1965) by Leendert Janzee

In April 2021, an abstract bronze sculpture appeared on the Kralingse Plaslaan: a stack of five hollow shapes with openings pointing in different directions. They are whimsical shapes that you cannot clearly name and that is not just for the sake of it: Spacebulbs is the title it received in 1965 from its maker, the Rotterdam sculptor Leendert Janzee (Gouda, 1940 – Rotterdam, 1972). 'Bulbs' can be translated into bulbs or flower bulbs as a kind of breeding ground for aliens, as in science fiction, a genre that flourished at the same time as space travel, which influenced design, art and fashion. Janzee's amorphous space bulbs look organic, but also contain brutally visible welds as a sign of the making process – not that of a modeling process as was common in sculpture until then, but the scars of a construction in an industrial workshop.

Read here the full background article written by Sandra Smets about Spacebulbs.

Leendert Janzee

The Rotterdam sculptor Leendert Janzee (Gouda, 1940 - Rotterdam, 1972) attended the Academy in Rotterdam and studied with Minguzzi at the Accademia Brera in Milan. He exhibited his images in Rotterdam, Toronto and Milan, developing very different styles. In 1964 he exhibited abstract 'space bulbs' in Keukenhof, which result from a more Wessel Couzijn-like style, a kind of abstract steel plastics. Two years later he showed pop-art-like sculptures at Galerie Delta, Fall out Baby, of a grim mutated baby with a gas mask. Around 1967 he began to present his 'furniture pieces' and then kinetic objects in groups in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Stedelijk Museum Schiedam.

It is thanks to the committed residents of the Prinses Julianalaan that Spacebulbs was given a second life in April 2021, partly thanks to the municipal project Wijkverrijkers, and can be admired again in good condition.