New Statue in Rotterdam Central Draws Attention and Mixed Reactions

The newly installed statue Moments Contained for Rotterdam Central attracts a lot of attention. The four-meter-high bronze statue of a woman of color can count on the approval of many Rotterdammers, regional broadcaster sees Rijnmond.

At the unveiling of the statue last Friday, Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb predicted that it will be “the most photographed place in Rotterdam”, and today dozens of people took a picture with the statue by artist Thomas J Price. According to the regional broadcaster, it is sometimes so busy at the image that people have to wait a while.

“I think it’s a beautiful statue, also what it stands for. She is proud and determined,” says a passerby who takes a picture of the statue. “If you compare it to other statues in the city, this is really unique,” says another. “In such a central place. And it’s a woman.”

A man filming the statue calls the work iconic: “I capture the image because it is a typical example of a Rotterdam person, I think. It’s like the image of Kabouter Buttplug. These are iconic images”. A German-speaking woman says she was inspired by the image: “She stands in stark contrast to modern architecture”.

Yet there is also criticism of the image. For example, NRC columnist Rosanne Hertzberger wondered why a ‘normal’ woman gets a statue. She calls “a statue for everyone an insult to people who do heroic deeds”.

“This work is a product of a social movement in which it is enough to be a marginalized party to gain sympathy. Just being a woman, having a disability, wearing a headscarf, having a dark skin color or preferably a combination of these is enough to shield to be raised, and especially in the cultural sector,” she writes in her columnthe much loosened.

Group chairman of 50Plus in Rotterdam, Ellen Verkoelen, would have preferred to see an image that refers to the port.

There is also criticism of the name Moments Contained. That could have been a bit more Rotterdam, say bystanders: “A nickname for her should come soon, as Rotterdammers often do.”

The statue was created in 2022 by British artist Thomas J. Price. Other sculptures by him are in London and New York. This 42-year-old Londoner with Caribbean roots is known for his immense bronze sculptures of black men and women that he himself calls ‘everymen’ and ‘everywomen’: they are not specific people, but images composed of the faces of several people. .

The artwork is the starting point of the sculpture route through Rotterdam, which continues via the sculpture terrace on Westersingel to Rotterdam South.