The podcast will be available on Wednesday, May 14, from 14.30:XNUMX PM The Beehive Stone can be heard during a special 'live' listening session at the artwork The Beehive Stone on the Coolsingel, at the height of the Donner bookstore. We invite you to literally stand still together and watch and listen attentively to the special story of this silent witness of a vanished city, who survived the bombardment. The podcast lasts approximately 35 minutes and can also be listened to from 14 May via this website and the well-known podcast channels.
About the artwork
In 2024, during Open Monument Day on the Coolsingel, the restored The Beehive Stone unveiled by Mayor Aboutaleb. This monumental facade artwork from 1930 by sculptor Hendrik van den Eijnde (1869-1939) adorned the facade of the famous Magazijn de Bijenkorf, a hypermodern building designed by architect Willem Marinus Dudok, in almost the same place until 1960.
During the bombing in 1940, the building was badly damaged, but the facade stone remained intact. But when the building was demolished in 1960 to make way for the metro, the stone disappeared from view and fell into oblivion. It was not until forty years later that the work was 'rediscovered' on the distribution site of the department store in Woerden. A long return journey of more than twenty years followed, to finally regain its place on the Coolsingel, but in a transformed city.
About the podcast
Designer Jan Konings, who was commissioned by BKOR to design a suitable contemporary plinth for The Beehive Stone designed, takes you on a quest for the different meanings of the facade stone in this podcast. Now that the statue is back in Rotterdam, this physical reminder raises questions about reconstruction and restoration, but also about identity.
The podcast The Beehive Stone was commissioned by BKOR. The project is part of the series Z-Files, art and the city, a program of BKOR and SIR in which art and public space and all dilemmas of this discipline are addressed by means of lectures, presentations, films and excursions. The aim of the program is to draw attention to the special collection of artworks of Rotterdam and to make current developments discussable.
Colophon: concept, composition and editing: Jan Konings, Kim Bouvy, Femke Bosma | Editing, mixing, sound design: Femke Bosma | Production: Kim Bouvy | Advice: Jennifer Pettersson | Music: Rutger Zuydervelt/Machinefabriek | Location recording: Operator | with thanks to: Aad Koster, Patricia van Ulzen, Ype Koopmans, Daniel Spee (MeestersIn), Sannetje van Haarst, Historical Society Roterodamum, Operator, Cultural Heritage Foundation de Bijenkorf, de Bijenkorf, Friends of Hendrik van den Eijnde, collection New Institute.