On 15 July, three years after his death, the artwork ‘Against All Currents’ was unveiled as a monument to Peter R de Vries. Rini Hurkmans, who made the sculpture, found inspiration from Michelangelo’s Pietà in St Peter’s in Rome – not coincidentally, mayor Halsema referred to De Vries in her speech as a hero, but not a saint. The Pietà is an iconographic theme that is a constant in Hurkmans’ oeuvre. With a hand gesture, Mary, mourning her slain son, involves the viewer in her grief. One of the hands that make up the new monument makes a similar gesture, a second reaches out to this outstretched hand.
Stadscuratorium Amsterdam, which guided the content of the selection and creation process, hopes that the monument may inspire many to go against the grain when justice is at stake.
