Utrecht 1982 – the sculpture picture

Today exactly 35 years ago The Cure played at the Vredenburg music centre in my hometown Utrecht. It was then and there where this well-known picture of The Cure was taken. However, I only realised this about ten years ago!

One day I was cycling along the backside of Utrecht Central Station, when I suddenly recognised this sculpture in combination with the sports hall behind it as the setting for this Cure photo. The sculpture is called ‘De Reis‘ (1971), which means ‘The Journey’. It is a creation of artist Paul Kingma.

At the time this part of the city was a bit of a concrete jungle. Across the street there is a hotel, formerly the Holiday Inn. Probably The Cure were staying there for their gig of 10 May 1982. I imagine on the evening of the concert they went outside with a photographer and did this photo shoot.

The first two pictures below are from 2010 when it still looked quite the same as in 1982. The surroundings of the station have changed drastically since then, in a positive sense.

The third picture shows how it looks today. The area is still under construction. Unfortunately the sculpture has been removed. No idea where it is now. We should ask the municipality to put it back because it’s a sacred place for Cure fans 😉

Update: I don’t think it was because of my blog, but in 2019 the Utrecht municipality placed the sculpture back on the street, about 100m from its original location. It is now part of a bigger artwork, located at the Croeselaan, close to the Rabobank.