People braving storm Ciara

Storm Ciara seen from a Rock Strangers perspective

Ostend, February 10th 2020. Many people are attracted by the spectacle of the sea in combination with storm Ciara during spring-tide. The Rock Stranger sculpture gave them some kind of protection against wind-blown sand and strong gusts.

What happens if strange elements suddenly appear in my environment, in my city? How do we react to unusual objects when we are suddenly confronted with them in our everyday life? Who or what is actually the stranger among us: the object or the passer-by?

These are the questions Arne Quinze wants to bring up with his public sculpture Rock Strangers in Ostend, Belgium. In the first year of our new millennium we saw clearly that our future would bring more and more migration. As Quinze has been traveling around the globe for the past 30 years, he has witnessed this with his own eyes. The Rock Strangers is a result of these findings. He wanted to create a landmark that stimulates the awareness towards a more diverse and multicultural society. In this context the city of Ostend is a very interesting subject. For a lot of people, Ostend functions as a final destination. A city by the sea, at land’s end. Many end up here and never leave again. Strange elements appear and contribute to the ‘multi’-society, which Ostend is turning into. The Rock Strangers sculpture embodies these ideas.

For the creation of Rock Strangers, Quinze found inspiration in the raw force of nature. The unbridled power in which nature shapes its infinite diversity is an inspiration throughout all of Arne Quinze's creations. This is no exception for the Rock Strangers. This work is sculpted in the most rough way possible. He wants the viewer to experience the unfiltered power and majesty of nature.