When the former OorlogsVerzetsMuseum moved from Katendrecht to Coolhaven, Onno Poiesz was commissioned by CBK Rotterdam to make a design for marking the entrance to the museum, which is somewhat hidden under the bridge. The shadow is a stylized scale model of a Heinkel bomber. With this aircraft, the bombing was carried out on 14 in May 1940, which still casts a shadow over the city to this day. Because of memories of this, the artwork immediately led to protests from Rotterdammers, but Poiesz wanted to make a link between now and the past with his plane. That is why the artwork was made of cast gray concrete, as a reference to the concrete with which the city was raised from the rubble at the time. Aircraft have long been a motive in Poiesz's work, because they are symbols of our time. They are associated with freedom and with fear, with progress and with threat. Poiesz incorporated these contradictions The shadow. A plane in the middle of a city is the odd one out – did it crash or just disable it? The location evokes contrasts and so does the design of the work. Poiesz stylized the plane and gave it one color. It is thus reduced to a reflection of its own reality, namely the scale model. It is there as a museum piece that commemorates the past and at the same time it is recognizable as a toy. In this way, Poiesz hopes to encourage reflection on the past and present with his artwork. “The work weighs as much as five tons (5000 kilos),” Poiesz said when the work was placed, while employees used large screws to attach the colossus to a pedestal. “As a native Rotterdammer, I can understand the fuss. But remember that it is a marker, not a monument.”
