Can a monument also be a cake?
The Willem Arondéus pavlova cake is an edible monument by artist Sarah van Sonsbeeck. Willem Arondéus was an artist and openly gay man. In 1943 he led an attack on the Amsterdam civil registry to destroy the personal records of Jewish Amsterdammers. He was betrayed, imprisoned in the Huis van Bewaring (House of Detention), the building that now houses De Balie, and sentenced to death. The night before his execution he requested a Dutch pavlova cake as his last meal. That night Arondéus and his fellow prisoners ate the cake together. The pink triangular shape of the cake refers to the marking used by the Nazi regime to identify gay prisoners, later reclaimed by the gay rights movement as a symbol of pride and resilience.
From 3 May the cake is available again at De Balie. A monument you can taste. Remembrance also happens with your hands, your mouth, together at a table.
