5 Inspiring Public Art Installations in Rotterdam
For art lovers, Europe has no shortage of places to visit. But in the light of cities like Florence, Rome, and Paris, many other European cities with excellent collections of art often get overlooked. Take Rotterdam for example. Not only does Rotterdam have several museums to visit, you don’t even have to enter a museum to enjoy a world-class collection of art. With Rotterdam’s many public art installations, it’s easy to enjoy art wherever you go around town.
Flat Earth
Rotterdam’s public art collection is so extensive that it even reaches underground into the subway system. When Rotterdam Public Transport (RET) decided to commission a piece of artwork for the Dijkzigt Metro Station, they contacted artist and architect Peter Jansen to execute his work, entitled Flat Earth.
For 20 years, Jansen traveled around the world, visiting almost half of the world’s existing countries and documenting his journey through photographs. What he documented, then called the Vista Series, would soon find new life at the Dijkzigt Metro Station as Flat Earth. Flat Earth is a collection of photographs from 30 countries around the world, all arranged in a panoramic view. The final product, consisting of 1250 digital photographs, spans 20 meters wide and now hangs over the station’s train tracks.
The Destroyed City
Public art can be a powerful way of recognizing the history and culture of the area surrounding it. While Rotterdam has a rich history that spans several centuries, the city has very few physical ties to its past. On May 14, 1940, the Rotterdam Blitz carried out by the Luftwaffe killed about 900 people, left 85,000 more people homeless, and destroyed nearly all of the city’s historic buildings.
The Destroyed City by Ossip Zadkine represents the horrors the city experienced during World War II, depicting a man with his arms reaching upward in agony and with a hole where his heart should be. Zadkine described the statue as, “A cry of horror against the inhuman brutality of this act of tyranny.” Located near the Maritime Museum, The Destroyed City is a poignant reminder of a defining moment in the city’s history, particularly when viewed surrounded by modern buildings constructed to take the place of the ones destroyed during the bombing.
Make it Happen
While some of Rotterdam’s public artwork reflects the city’s history, other pieces have a very distinctly modern touch. When the city of Rotterdam adopted the “Make it Happen” motto in 2014, they commissioned pieces of public art that celebrate the pioneering spirit of the people who live and work there.
This initiative didn’t just bring more artwork to the city, it resulted in artwork that truly invites people to take a moment to become more engaged with their surroundings. This mural by Daan Botlek features a series of figures climbing the exterior wall of a building, complete with rungs that allow people to pose and become part of the art. Another mural near Central Station, designed by Calvin Sprague, reflects the city’s bicycle culture and also features rungs that allow people to interact with the mural.
Whether you’re a tourist looking for a photo opportunity or visit Rotterdam on a regular basis, there’s no denying that this kind of interactive art makes for a very fun and playful addition to the city.
Horn of Plenty
One of Rotterdam’s most spectacular pieces of art is also one of its newest. When the Markthal opened in 2014, it was more than just a place to shop, eat, or live. The already striking horseshoe-shaped building gained international attention for being adorned with a massive digital mural known as Horn of Plenty.
Consisting of 4,000 individual tiles covering the interior side of the building’s arch, Horn of Plenty quickly earned the nickname “The Sistine Chapel of Rotterdam.” Artist Arno Coenen designed the mural to be a tribute to the bounty of nature, including imagery of things like insects, flowers, fruit, and vegetables. Coenen wanted the mural to invoke a childlike sense of wonder and worked with Pixar Studios, a team of 3D modelers and a photographer to bring this large-scale piece of art to life.
Horn of Plenty isn’t just a static piece of art, either. Coenen envisioned the mural to include a layer of permanent art which moving animations can be projected on top of. For example, the mural can depict phases of the moon at night time, or seasonal scenes such as 3D eggs for Easter.
Sylvette
Just outside the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, visitors have a chance to see a sculpture created by one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century: Pablo Picasso. Sylvette is a rendering of one of Picasso’s most famous subjects, 19-year-old Lydia Sylvette David. Presented in his signature Cubist style, Picasso worked with sculptor Carl Nesjar to develop a sandblasting technique that would allow them to make a larger concrete replica of one of Picasso’s earlier sculptures of Sylvette, while preserving the hand-drawn look of the original sculpture.
These five pieces of art represent a very small portion of all the public art around Rotterdam. To find more around the city, be sure to check out the Rotterdam Street Art Route or use the Rotterdam Routes mobile app to see their Art & Poetry route. Sculpture International Rotterdam also has details about many of the sculptures located around town.
