Marcel van E

eden

De C

ornelia M

aersk |The C

ornelia M

aersk

MARCEL VAN EEDEN

DE CORNELIA MAERSKTHE CORNELIA MAERSK

3‘At the helm that night stood the heart and took in the moon and forests

4and sailing over reflections of all that it had suffered

5steered in wind and twilight bow and rig beyond the last city.’

6Look carefully at this picture. Tell me what you see. Look carefully at the picture. What day could it be?

7Is it morning, afternoon or evening? Look carefully at the

8picture. Keep looking. I will count back from 10 to 1. At 10, your arms will start to feel heavier.

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109. You are slowly travelling back in time.8. Look at the picture. —

117. It is a sunny day. It is warm.6. Look at the picture.

124. CLOSE YOUR EYES

13At 3 you will be in 1941.

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152 You are in the port of Rotterdam.

It is June 1941.

161 Two men are on a quay.

They are speaking to each other.

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18Matheus Boryna learned about it earlier that year. Someone brought him a letter

19from London which stated something about a voyage to Walvis Bay,

20Namibia. In fact, the letter commissioned the voyage. Oswald Sollmann, archaeologist,

21art connoisseur and director of the world’s darkest museum, had also

22received such a letter but was moreover aware of

23the purpose of the voyage. On that quay in Rotterdam, however,

24when they spoke to each other again for the first time since their last meeting in Kirkuk in 1927, he kept the purpose a secret.

25Not far from the men lay the Cornelia Maersk, a cargo ship of 281 feet and 1,892 tons on which

26they would shortly depart. Everything had been arranged from

27London. They must have had good contacts there. Later, on a dark night somewhere out at sea,

28Sollmann, director of the world’s darkest museum, would say more about

29the purpose of this curious undertaking.

30‘At the helm that night stood the heart and took in the moon and forests

31and sailing over reflections of all that it had suffered

32steered in wind and twilight bow and rig beyond the last city.’

33The world’s darkest museum mainly contained drawings. Its rooms were always almost completely

34dark, so that the few visitors who came had to let their eyes get accustomed to the place before they

35could find their way. The exquisite collection was known only to a handful of initiates.

36Many of the drawings were actually no drawings at all but rather letters, strange documents

37or diaries. Sollmann’s favourite was the collection of letters and drawings by Gruenewald.

38They were never exhibited.He now knew that, via the Dutch

39East Indies and Australia, more had been brought to Walvis Bay and offered for sale.

40The sky was almost black upon departure. It might have been

41an omen.The vessel travelled alone. A convoy was not

42necessary, since everything had been extremely well organised.On board was a ten-man crew, sufficient

43food, not enough water, weapons, a

44safe specially prepared for this voyage and a number of

45COFFINS

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47It is 1941. You are on a vessel that has left the port of Rotterdam. The sky is leaden,

48almost black. You are afraid. The voyage is dangerous. En route, you constantly see vessels that have been fired upon, are in flames

49or have partially sunk. The instructions are clear: do not rescue survivors. Do not take anyone on board.

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54In Walvis Bay, on the west coast of Africa, iron ore would be loaded – the officially specified cargo. When they had been underway for over a week,

55on a sleepless night Sollmann spoke about their purpose; about what had to be secured

56for the collection of the world’s darkest museum.

57Vessels in flames, sinking wrecks, floating corpses: the war

58was overwhelmingly manifest at sea.It seemed as if they themselves were protected from

59attacks of any kind whatsoever. They suspected that the client in London had something to do with it.

60Day and night, the vessel was surrounded by ominous black water.

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62You are at sea, and for days and weeks on end see nothing but sea and wrecks. Explosions.

63Warships. Frigates hit by hostile fire. Empty lifeboats. Lifeboats containing the dead.

64Lifeboats containing the dying. Sea.

65Later, it was precisely those horrific images of war that they remembered best. They spoke about very different things, however, when they

66met again many years later in a coffee house in Vienna.

67The director of the world’s darkest museum was in command of the vessel.

68ONE NIGHT,

69as said, he disclosed more details. Important missing letters and drawings, the existence of which

70almost no one suspected, had to be secured for the collection of his museum.

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73The iron ore was loaded in the port of Walvis Bay. An unknown individual brought

74a number of packages on board. They were opened, and Sollmann and Boryna subjected the contents

75to a careful examination. When they were satisfied that the papers were indeed authentic, payment was made and

76everything was repacked. The packages were placed in the safe.

77Following the return voyage, as soon as they were almost at the port ofRotterdam, a small boat would come

78to take Sollmann and Boryna, together with the packages, to a safe place on land.

79The Cornelia Maersk would then continue on her voyage to the port of

80Rotterdam to unload the iron ore.That was the plan.

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83It is 5th January 1942

84You are on a vessel. After a long voyage, it is approaching the port of Rotterdam. Slowly.

85The crew seems to be expecting something.

86Aircrafts are approaching.

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88There is agitation on board. The safe is opened.

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90The aircraft flew low over the vessel and dropped bombs, two of which hit the

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92stern. A tremendous shockwave passed through the vessel. A fire broke out.

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94Sollman saw more small boats suddenly appearing. Due to the chaos on board,

95different packages perhaps ended up on the wrong boats or remained behind on the stricken Cornelia Maersk,

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97which drifted away in flames before going under at N51°57’43 – E03°59’98.

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99‘At the helm that night stood the heart and took in the moon and forests

100and sailing over reflections of all that it had suffered

101steered in wind and twilight bow and rig beyond the last city.’

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Afterword

In 2009, Marcel van Eeden (The Hague,1965) was invited to make a work for theImage Project Maasvlakte 2. Van Eeden isinternationally known for his attractive,narrative series of drawings, which arebased on photographs from the timebefore he was born. The artist proved emi-nently suited for setting to work on anarea ‘without a history’.

Marcel van Eeden: ‘The Maasvlakte 2 areahas virtually no history; it’s like an emptypage. That makes it interesting to me. Itake the sinking of the Cornelia Maersk in1942 as a starting point for a story – givingthe area as it were its own history or leg-end’. The artist drew his story after exten-sive historical research. Together, thesedrawings form a narrative that is a person-

Nawoord

In 2009 werd Marcel van Eeden (DenHaag, 1965) uitgenodigd om voor hetbeeldproject Maasvlakte 2 een werk temaken. Van Eeden staat internationaalbekend om zijn fraaie, verhalende seriestekeningen die hij maakt op basis vanfoto’s uit de tijd van vóór zijn geboorte.Deze beeldend kunstenaar bleek bij uit-stek geschikt om aan de slag te gaan meteen gebied ‘zonder geschiedenis’.

Marcel van Eeden: ‘Het gebied vanMaasvlakte 2 heeft vrijwel geen geschie-denis, het is als een onbeschreven blad.Dat maakt het voor mij interessant. Ikneem het tot zinken brengen van deCornelia Maersk in 1942 als uitgangspuntvan een verhaal en geef het gebied als hetware zijn eigen historie of legende.’ De

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kunstenaar tekende zijn verhaal na uitge-breid historisch onderzoek. Deze tekenin-gen vormen samen een vertelling die eenpersoonlijke interpretatie is van de ge-beurtenissen die leidden tot ondergangvan het genoemde schip. Met elkaar vor-men deze een spannend beeldverhaal datverwijst naar het ‘ouderwetse’ mediumvan de fotoroman. Van Eeden speelt hierineen spel met werkelijkheid, geschied-schrijving en mythe – een spel waarin derol van het beeld in de collectieve herinne-ring centraal staat.

Van begin september 2009 tot 19 januari2010 maakte Van Eeden dagelijks eennieuwe tekening die meteen te zien wasop de website van de landuitbreidingMaasvlakte 2. Op de site http://www.marcelvaneeden.nl/cm/ zijnalle tekeningen terug te vinden.

al interpretation of the events that led tothe wreck of the vessel in question.Together they form an exciting strip car-toon that refers to the ‘old-fashioned’medium of the photo novel. In this series,Van Eeden plays with reality, history andmyth – a game that focuses on the role ofimages in our collective memory.

From early September 2009 to 19 January2010, Van Eeden made a new drawingevery day, which was immediately pub-lished on the website of the Maasvlakte 2land reclamation project. All drawings can be found on the websitehttp://www.marcelvaneeden.nl/cm/.

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SS Cornelia Maersk

Op 5 januari 1942 werd het stoomschipCornelia Maersk, op weg van Rotterdamnaar Kopenhagen, gebombardeerd. Het

SS Cornelia Maersk

On 5 January 1942, the steamer CorneliaMaersk, en route to Copenhagen fromRotterdam, was bombed. It was hit by two

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werd getroffen door twee bommen. Eenreddingsoperatie mislukte. Onbevestigdebronnen uit die tijd meldden dat het schipnog zo’n vijf zeemijlen naar het zuidwestendreef voor het zonk in het gebied waar nuMaasvlakte 2 wordt aangelegd. Er vielengeen slachtoffers. De Cornelia Maerskvoerde de Deense vlag.

Gedoopt in 1925 in Elbing, Duitsland (nu Elblag in Polen)TDW: 3.150Lengte: 85,34 meterBreedte: 12,19 meterVoorsteven: 6,51 meterIn het voorjaar of de zomer van 2011wordt de SS Cornelia Maersk gelicht omplaats te maken voor de aanleg van eenvan de havenbekkens van Maasvlakte 2.

bombs. A salvage operation failed. Uncon-firmed sources of the time reported thatthe ship drifted another five nautical milesto the southwest before it sunk in the areawhere at present Maasvlakte 2 is underconstruction. There were no casualties.The Cornelia Maersk sailed under theDanish flag.

Christened in 1925 in Elbing, Germany(now Elblag in Poland)DTW: 3.150Length: 85,34 meterWidth: 12,19 meterProw: 6,51 meterIn the spring or summer of 2011, the SS Cornelia Maersk will be lifted to makeway for the construction of one of theMaasvlakte 2 docks.

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De uitbreiding van de Rotterdamse haven

In de Noordzee, ten westen van de havenvan Rotterdam, verrijst vanaf najaar 2008nieuw land uit het zilte water. Enerzijds isdit grote infrastructuurproject een logi-sche stap in de uitbreiding van de haven.Anderzijds gaat het om een echt Neder-lands fenomeen: land winnen op hetwater. Maasvlakte 2 is in die zin een pro-ject met een historische, culturele dimen-sie. Zo’n project vraagt erom op de voetgevolgd te worden door beeldend kunste-naars.

Marcel van Eeden (2009-2010) is naDorothée Meyer (2008) de tweede kunste-naar die voor het Beeldproject de komstvan Maasvlakte 2 volgt. In de komendejaren is werk van Erik Wesselo, Rosa Barbaen Lidwien van de Ven te verwachten. De

The expansion of the Port of Rotterdam

In the autumn of 2008, new land startedrising from the salty waters of the NorthSea, to the west of the Port of Rotterdam.On the one hand, this major infrastructureproject forms a logical next step in theexpansion of the port. On the other hand,it is a typically Dutch phenomenon: thereclaiming of land from the water. In thissense, the construction of Maasvlakte 2 isa project with a historical, cultural dimen-sion. A project like this demands to beclosely tracked by visual artists.

After Dorothée Meyer (2008), Marcel vanEeden (2009-2010) is the second artist torespond to the development of Maas-vlakte 2 for the Visual Project. Over thenext few years, we can expect furtherworks by Erik Wesselo, Rosa Barba and

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verschillende invalshoeken van de kunste-naars leiden tot mooie, spannende enprikkelende beelden en beeldverhalen. Aldie verhalen samen vormen de uitkomstvan het Beeldproject Maasvlakte 2: deculturele dimensie van de fysieke landaan-winning.

Beeldproject Maasvlakte 2

Beeldproject Maasvlakte 2 is een initiatiefvan het Havenbedrijf Rotterdam N.V.(Projectorganisatie Maasvlakte 2), hetNederlands Fotomuseum en SKOR(Stichting Kunst en Openbare Ruimte). Hetproject loopt van 2007 tot en met 2013,het jaar waarin het eerste schip afmeert inhet nieuwe havengebied.

Lidwien van de Ven. The artists’ differentperspectives lead them to create attrac-tive, exciting and stimulating images andvisual narratives. Together, all these storiesform the result of the Maasvlakte 2 VisualProject: the cultural dimension of thephysical land reclamation project.

Image Project Maasvlakte 2

The Image Project Maasvlakte 2 is an ini-tiative of the Port of Rotterdam Authority(Project Organisation Maasvlakte 2), theNederlands Fotomuseum and SKOR(Foundation Art and Public Space). Theproject will run from 2007 to 2013, theyear in which the first ship will dock in thenew dock area.

Colofon

Met dank aan | Thanks to:Renée Erdin-SorensenMichiel HennusGerrit Jan de RookHinke SchreudersSilke StahlschmidtMichael Zink

Projectteam: Frits Gierstberg, Nederlands FotomuseumRia Haagsma, Port of Rotterdam Authority(Project Organisation Maasvlakte 2)Sjaak Poppe, Port of Rotterdam AuthorityTheo Tegelaers, SKOR (Art and PublicSpace Foundation)

Courtesy Galerie Zink, Munich/Berlin

Uitgave | published by:Havenbedrijf Rotterdam N.V. | Port ofRotterdam Authority (Project OrganisationMaasvlakte 2)

Oplage | Impression: 1,000Grafisch ontwerp | Graphic design: Marcel van Eeden and Michael SauerDruk | Printed: Format Offset, HamburgVertaling | Translation: Business TranslationServices B.V., Rotterdam

ISBN: 978-90-801072-3-6

© Marcel van Eeden

www.maasvlakte2.com www.skor.nl www.nederlandsfotomuseum.nl