Les extrêmes se touchent

Visual artist and architecture critic Nic. Tummers was an ardent advocate of 'socio-space', an interdisciplinary approach to visual art, architecture and urban planning. Besides designer and visual artist, Tummers was a politician, organiser, journalist, historian and teacher. His engagement focused on Heerlen as the centre of the mining region and the consequences of the mine closures. He advocated the preservation and redevelopment of the mining landscape as cultural heritage. He also campaigned in the mid-1990s for the preservation of the Glaspaleis, where SCHUNCK is now located.

attraction of extremes

Les extrèmes se touchent were the words with which Nic. Tummers' father-in-law typified the relationship between his daughter Vera and Nic. Sculptor Vera van Hasselt (Ubbergen, 1924-2014) was Nic's life partner, and the phrase in question refers to the attraction between their divergent views on life and art. At the same time, it applies to Nic's multifaceted thinking and to his attention to Heerlen's various time layers: the Roman era, the Middle Ages, mining, modernism and the post-industrial legacy.