Amsterdam is not a city that likes to put those in power on a pedestal. The late mayor Eberhard van der Laan never received a statue on a plinth beside city hall — instead, he looks out over the city at sixty centimetres tall, from the rain gutter of Paradiso.
In Amsterdam, folk heroes seem to be better represented than figures of authority. On the initiative of local resident Hannie Pastor, the Johnny Jordaan Square came into being at the tip of the Elandsgracht, where between 1991 and 2010 the icons of the Jordaan song tradition appeared in bronze: Johnny Jordaan, Tante Leen, Manke Nelis, Johnny Meyer, and Bolle Jan & Mien Froger.
SNEAKPEEK from the chapter by @annemariedewildt in the book U bent hier — and a Sunday Sculpture!
Foto: Jan Willem Kaldenbach
