The Kunsthal Rotterdam presents the Locomotofrumphant, Mother Goose, Sparta Pete, Cuban Fly, Moaner, Blue Worker and more creations by Jules Deelder. Better known as a poet and nocturnal mayor of Rotterdam, Deelder gives voice to the poetry of his imagination. As real poets are supposed to do, he gives his ‘Beelder’ the most suitable names. The exhibition presents eleven unique creations, all made of colourful plastic.
For eighteen months J.A. Deelder has been collecting pens, cocktail sticks, hypodermic needles, tubes, drinking straws, teaspoons, toothbrushes, toys and contact lens holders and then sorting them by colour. He glues all these materials together to form three-dimensional objects, thereby adding a new dimension to his rich oeuvre of poetry and performances. In his own words: “You just sit and mess around a bit and at a certain moment it becomes something”.
Spaceships
When Deelder’s daughter Ari was making a film about Willem Koopman alias Willem the Biker in 2015, her father was prepared to make a number of spaceships as Willem always used to do in the bars of Rotterdam. The former biker and tramp with a supernatural mission, Koopman, saw Rotterdam as a spaceship that might be fired out of the universe at any moment. Deelder’s creations, on the other hand, do not ascend to the furthest corners of the universe, but land in the Kunsthal.
About Jules Deelder
J.A. Deelder was born in 1944 as the son of a meat merchant in Rotterdam. Deelder has been a national celebrity since the early 1960s as a jazz connoisseur, writer, poet, performer and above all Rotterdam local. His emphatic predilection for black clothing, butterfly spectacles, Sparta, Citroën and cycling have made him a familiar figure in TV and radio programmes.
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