Beautiful shard (2020) Hans Muller
On March 18, 1945, seven weeks before the Liberation, a German V impact took place on the corner of Kerdijkstraat and Treubstraat. The impact of the off-course bomb killed at least 34 people, injured dozens and completely destroyed 34 homes. This event has been commemorated since 2017 through the use of a residents' initiative Treubstraat Memorial Foundation. At the initiative of this foundation, the monument Schitterende shard by artist Hans Muller was also realized. The work shows the total disruption of two essential elements of a home: a window and a table. Both parts are linked together into one image, making it look like a bed in total. The whole is twisted along an axis and therefore gives a distorted impression, as if a devastating force had been exerted on it. The window is broken and determines the shape of the window. A shard protruding from the table is still completely intact and untouched. The familiar reality of the home environment has been distorted. The Resplendent Shard is an indestructible memory of the victims. Due to corona measures, the planned ceremony of March 18, exactly 75 years after the impact, was postponed. On Friday, September 18, 2020, the monument was unveiled by relatives and witnesses, in the presence of Deputy Mayor Bert Wijbenga. The meeting was held via a live stream broadcast by Rijnmond broadcaster.
Hans Muller (Hellevoetsluis, 1956) is a visual artist and composer. He studied Audio Visual at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. In addition to being a visual artist, Muller is also active as a sound artist in the music, theater and film world. After graduating and winning the Gerrit Rietveld Academy Prize in 1988, he worked for a number of years as an assistant director and in-house composer at a theater company in Ghent, Belgium. In 1998 Muller received an exceptionally honorable mention at the Rotterdam Design Prize. In 2003 his design for a storytable won the ICT award 'Best in the neighborhood'. Muller teaches sound & autonomous art at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. He works and lives in Rotterdam.