New: "Selfie-Point" next to the podium bridge

Bocholt's eye-catching podium bridge and the venerable textile mill in the background are popular photo motifs. Pictures of these places pop up again and again on social networks. There could be even more in the future: A steel work of art right next to the bridge, opposite the "Schiffchen" restaurant, forms a huge frame to encourage passers-by to take self-portraits and snapshots with their mobile phones. This "selfie point" has now been unveiled.

"This can carry the "Bocholt" brand even further forward. I hope that even more people will take photos here", Mayor Thomas Kerkhoff is pleased about the "new highlight in the Kubaai quarter". Together with the creator of the work, the artist Ludwig Maria Vongries, Kerkhoff unveiled the 5-metre-wide, 3.50-high and 2-tonne frame made of Corten steel, the material from which the podium bridge is also made.

Vongries is a specialist for large sculptures ("Große Arbeiten"). Such can also be seen in other places in the Münsterland, for example in Nottuln or Raesfeld. "My works of art always invite you to do something with them, to climb on them, to sit on them, to climb them - to get another view of things and the surroundings," explains Vongries. Together with the bridge, the frame forms a "great combination". It took four months to complete. The special feature: The corten steel only rusts on the surface. Vongries also provided the steel frame with a web of 2 mm thick brass wire - a homage to the special place in Bocholt that has been occupied with the textile fibre for centuries.

An existing concrete bench serves as the pedestal of the selfie frame. It is placed in such a way that it creates a visual axis from the Textile Museum across the Bocholter Aa to the textile factory. The frame invites passers-by to look for a spot in front of, behind and inside the frame itself where both a single person and a larger group can take a photo of themselves, always with a view of the silhouette of the textile mill and the classic lettering of Bocholt with its geodata.

The artwork was commissioned on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the town.

More information on the artist Ludwig Maria Vongries at www.lm-v.de.