Hartboom (Heart tree)
On the windows of a block of flats in the Salviastraat, Vlaardingen, Fleur van den Berg created Hartboom at a moment when the neighborhood was about to be demolished. Long-term residents were leaving, temporary tenants were moving in, and the once strong sense of community was fading. In conversations with inhabitants and by observing the place, Van den Berg gathered impressions that formed the basis of the work.

Hartboom shows a tall tree made of blood vessels, with a heart at its center. The building is imagined as a living body, its hidden lifelines exposed — raw and vulnerable. The tree symbolizes the social fabric of the neighborhood: once strong, now in decline, yet still carrying memories and connections. As residents leave, they become seeds of the tree, taking a part of this life with them, while what remains turns into humus for the future.

Poem – Hartboom
I beat, I beat…
soon it will be over with me.
I am no longer who I was,
I do not know what I will become.