Sculpture garden Frans de Wit, Singelpark, Leiden, 2020, design sculpture garden: Frans Schrofer
'Frans de Wit is seen as one of the most important sculptors of his generation, he should be celebrated, we should be proud of what he accomplished!' architect Fons Verheijen, Radio Sleutelstad, 25-5-2019.

Frans Schrofer, industrial designer and designer of ‘Sculpture garden Frans de Wit’, explains:
‘Frans de Wit always used the location’s surroundings of the statue’s placement as a starting point for his design process for his monumental sculptures. I used his methodology as the guideline for the Anchor Park (the location for Sculpture garden Frans de Wit) in Leiden. On this site, the Royal Dutch Forgery existed from 1836 to 1978. It consisted of an iron foundry, a factory for naval chain forging, and a shipyard of 2 parts, the park and the harbor.

Frans was fascinated by boats at an early age. At the age of 24, he converted an abandoned barge into a studio-houseboat. Later in Frans’ career, he created a roof structure above an old warehouse that resembled a ship from the outside and inside.
In this same period, he was commissioned to create a series of statues for Naturalis, Leiden’s museum of natural sciences. The result was ‘Five Sculptures on One Curve’ (1996-2002) created from pressed metal retrieved from decommissioned freighters. Five monolithic monuments of metal were created from processed scrap metal with distinguished folds, fissures and fractures. Concurrently, he created his series ‘Guardians’ (2002), using the same method as un-commissioned work, which now stand prominently at the Anchor Park, safeguarding the site of this former shipyard. Its historic importance and location with Frans de Wit’s work creates a beautiful interplay of elements.’