Het Harde Potlood, 2009

Location: De Elout primary school, Copernicusstraat 159, The Hague

Artist collective Het Harde Potlood has made wall drawings in primary school De Elout, in the Regentessekwartier in The Hague. The drawings can be found throughout the school. The art project incorporated drawings from all the school's children.

In short workshops with Het Harde Potlood, pupils of De Elout depicted their heroes and heroines on paper. These drawn heroes populate the wall drawings. They form, for example, the passengers of a rocket, or man a truck or submarine. The vehicles full of heroes sail, fly and drive through a world full of rocks, water, planets and clouds. Here and there, strange crops and creatures linger.

Het Harde Potlood is an artists' collective founded in Amsterdam in 2006. Its members are Marike Knaapen, Richtje Reinsma, Roosmarijn Schoonewelle and Heleen Wiemer. The work of Het Harde Potlood is multidisciplinary and includes paper installations, performances, wall drawings, animations and illustrations. To the general public, Het Harde Potlood is best known for their illustrations for the series Fanny and Alma for NRC Next. The four members of the collective also work as independent artists in various media.

The artwork was realised as part of the municipal scheme ‘art in schools’ and was supervised by Stroom Den Haag.