Groeispurt X Four Day Celebrations

Every year Nijmegen prepares for the Four-Day Festivities with excitement: the entire city center is transformed into an event site and the possibilities seem endless. Everyone walking in the city during the build-up week feels the jitters, a pleasant lull before the storm. That feeling, as if the city is heavily pregnant and expecting all the beauty to come, cannot really be put into words. That is why this year, Four Days Festivals and Groeispurt once again asked artists from the city to capture that energy and transform it into art.

Residence in the Besiendershuis

On Monday, July 8, 2024, artists Mirthe Scheifes, Roanne van Baren and the band members of Misprint will receive the key to the Besiendershuis. For a week, they will work in the Besiendershuis toward a final result on Friday. Before that, the artists also move around the city in part to transform the dynamics of the preparations into various art forms. With this collaboration between Groeispurt and Vierdaagsefeesten, the knife cuts both ways: art is made to share 'the feeling of' with the public, and young creators get the chance to reach a large, diverse audience.

About the artists

Visual artist Mirthe Scheifes, born in Nijmegen, explores in her work the limits of the human body and its relationship to the environment. In the ongoing series "To be beyond human," she searches for a new imagination by letting go of everything we know about the human body. Freelance writer and journalist Roanne van Baren captures the richness of Nijmegen lives in writing and images. Together with fellow nuilers, she creates the magazine de Nuilende Nimwegenaar. An idea that came about when she wanted to escape the Randstad, return to her birthplace, as befits a loyal Nijmegen native, and celebrate this return. Misprint, the Dutch-language indie band from Nijmegen, captures the beauty of everyday moments in their music. The Dutch-language indie band mixes fresh sing-along choruses with a touch of melancholy. The Nijmegen foursome has performed at the Valkhof Festival and Misty Fields, among others, and is working on their debut album MONOBLOC, about the white plastic garden chair.

The result

The photo series of Mirthe

The polaroid series "In the frame of" by Mirthe shows a look behind the scenes of the construction of the Four Days Festivities. In a poetic way she shows the beauty of the construction period. The colors, shapes and emptiness that are still visible now. And what happens when the Four Days Festivities enter the Besiendershuis? This question Mirthe tried to represent in a playful an experimental way with the photo series "Feet off the Floor. Both projects can be seen at creative agency Great Things, at Gruitberg 22 in Nijmegen.

The zine from Roanne

Roanne's creation is a special "zine" that highlights the run-up to the Four Days Festivities in a unique way. The zine is designed as a pocket version that you can fold out to an A3 size. In addition to Roanne's own Vierdaagse story, the city ecologist and a garbage collector from the DAR, among others, are featured, and there is an interview with someone who is bothered by urinators, including tips. The print version of Roanne's zine is currently being finalized. One hundred copies will be distributed through CityStore, Dekker van de Vegt, Boekwinkel Roelants, LUX, Blonde Pater, Infostand van de Valkhof and Franco James.

Misprint's radio show

Misprint's project revolved around creating a radio show with the theme "the run-up to the Four Days Marches. For this, they created several new songs and invited musicians to make music together. They also did street interviews and created fictional radio tunes and bumpers. Moreover, the new songs will be heard live on July 13 during Friends of Oersoep Live.

Listen to Misprint's radio show here: