Homomonument in The Hague

Brief Information

The metal curl on the green lawn in the center of The Hague was conceived as a monument to two connected things at once: homosexuals who were victims of the Second World War and the LGBT community’s struggle against discrimination. That is why the form here is no less important than the memorial inscription or the place where it is installed: the sculpture tells not of an event marked by a single date, but of an inner path from awareness to liberation.

The idea for such a monument emerged in the winter of 1984, municipal approval was obtained in the spring of 1986, but the unveiling was postponed several times and took place only in 1993. This delay itself changes the way one sees the object: the monument speaks not only about the memory of the past, but also about how long it took for a public sign of such memory to become possible. Since then, ceremonies commemorating the victims of the Second World War have been held there every year.

What to Notice First

It makes sense to read the monument from bottom to top. The blue base represents awareness, and from it the metal curl rises toward the pink upper part, called the sail of liberation. Between them is a knot, a sign of conflict. Thus the color gradient from blue to pink works not as decoration, but as a diagram of movement: from understanding oneself, through tension, to emerging from it.

The green lawn is also part of the composition, not a neutral background: in the artist’s symbolism it represents society. Because of this, the whole sculpture reads as a figure placed inside a social environment. The metal, the curl, the knot, and the “sail” combine into a single image: personal self-awareness is not separated from external pressure, but through this very form the monument shows the possibility of liberation.