the Fisherman

The concept for the Fisherman was born during a trip to Dunkerque. It felt like something was missing near the heavy industrial areas along the channel between France and England. There I got the idea to make a giant Fisherman that might also be visible from the other side of the water.

I ended up however with a smaller model of the original idea at the Finnish Cultural Center in Antwerp and subsequently in Helsinki, Finland. There the project became part of the Helsinki Cultural Capital Program in 2000. After many visits to Helsinki and hundreds of meetings, the actual project was declared impossible. In contrast, the Fisherman received a warm welcome in Rotterdam.

Using a small scale model instead of drawings as a guideline, the work in Rotterdam was constructed by hundreds of students from different local vocational schools. The actual Fisherman is now 10 meters high holding a fishing rod 22 meters long.

Without any financial support, the Rotterdam project got completed in September 2006. The Fisherman can be seen across from the Euromast along the southern bank of the Maas River. It has been met with a lot of enthusiasm and appreciation to this day and still continues to draw a lot of attention and enthusiastic reactions.