Tap the red cross - on the previous page - in the overview to delete a location. You will immediately see that the route will be shorter. If you press the right arrow logo on this page a route will be created to this location.
We start this route at one of the craziest and most talked about icons of the city. On the Eendrachtsplein you will find the statue Santa Claus by artist Paul McCarthy, aka Kabouter Buttplug. The image of Santa Claus holding a dildo-like Christmas tree was reviled for years and was even part of an exhibition entitled Public Lover and Orphanage. With the image, the artist wants to criticize the hefty consumption society.
About Kabouter Buttplug has been arguing for years. The image moved several times making it absolutely compliant with the title orphan image! The 180 statue costing a thousand euros would originally be placed at De Doelen concert hall, but there was a lot of protest because of the sexual connotation. Then the Boijmans location came into view, but here too the image had to disappear.
The hustle and bustle eventually stopped when entrepreneurs around the Nieuwe Binnenweg indicated that they really wanted the picture and started lobbying for a place in the neighborhood.
Artist Paul McCarthy has been discredited more often with his images? For a while his artwork 'Tree' was in Paris, which also looks a lot like a sex toy. Vandals damaged the inflatable artwork, and McCarthy was even physically attacked by an enraged Parisian! In Oslo, there has been a red version of Santa Claus since 2018.
Santa Claus is part of the Westersingel Sculpture Route that consists of seventeen works of art, including the concrete statue 'Sylvette' by Pablo Picasso on the Westersingel. The sculpture route starts at the Westersingel / Kruiskade intersection and ends at Westzeedijk. On the other side you drink good coffee at the sympathetic Heilige Boontjes Coffee where underprivileged young people work who needed a second chance.
After our dildo gnome it is time for another icon in Rotterdam: The next location in this route is still under construction, but it promises to be a special and distinctive building for Rotterdam. Cross the street from the gnome and walk left in the direction of Heilige Boontjes. Also use the navigation in our app.
