A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit Waalwijk, known for its shoe business, this city is located between Tilburg and 's-Hertogenbosch, and as every place in The Netherlands, Waalwijk has its own essence, but something, in particular, caught my attention.
Thanks to an amazing tour that I did with some new friends, I had the chance to know a little bit more about an important project call the “Wet Blue”. This project has the intention to present the history and traditions of Waalwijk, besides promoting tourism and continue to strengthen the leather and shoe industry through an innovative way of art: lights.
In the town center, you can find this short route that gives you an introduction to the history of this industry in Waalwijk, starting with the city hall, Rabobank and the studios located in the Hooisteeg street. But, what this exactly represent?
Well, this project seeks to commemorate the leather and shoe industry in different ways, we can find the first one lighting the studios, where you will found a representation of a photograph taken in 1910, here you can see the shoemakers who used to work there. This image was recreated with the new owners of these studios in 2016 as a tribute to their former owners. Plus, these are open studios, so during the week you can go inside and see all these talented and very nice artists work on their masterpieces.
The second way wants to connect nature with the shoe industry, and due to the leather is a natural product, you can get a different color each time the process is done, sometimes its tone can be blue or more green. This is why the lights of the town hall represent the connection between this process and the charms of nature, here the art of lights mix with nature to give you a different "Wet Blue" according to the humidity and temperature of the city, with the purpose of complementing the concept that “Nature is everyone's, as is the town hall of Waalwijk”(1).
And why "Wet Blue"? Wet Blue is the name for the color that chrome tanned leather acquires, which reflects the history of the shoe business.
As I said before, Waalwijk is a very special city where you can not only found arts in all their ways, but also so much interesting things like the national park de Loonse en Drunense Duinen, the Leder & Schoenen Museum, the Sint Jan De Doper church, and it's also 30 minutes away to the Efteling. So If you want to know more about this amazing city and their project, check the website (1)
http://www.arjenvandercruijsen.com/2017/02/14/wetblue-waalwijk/ I’m sure you will have an excellent day in this important piece of history and traditions of Netherlands.
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