Graphic Novel

The book

“Whoever you are and wherever you come from: if you love Rotterdam and want to know more about the city, this is a book for you.” So says the book’s back cover. The book “METRO O1O. Unlikely but true. A graphic novel about the metropolis on the Maas” is about loving, and knowing the city. About history, architecture and culture. About important events in the past that made the city what it is today. About the city’s residents. How can they better understand their city and make it better? METRO O1O is not only a book for Rotterdammers, but also a book by Rotterdammers. All cartoonists, illustrators, photographers, poets, designers and writers who have contributed come from ‘Roffa’, Rotterdam’s nickname. Born and raised or newcomers, established or emerging artists. They all have something to do with the city, and each of them has presented Rotterdam in a unique way in this book.

The story begins way back in the past, when the city was little more than a fishing village and ends with glimpses of Rotterdam’s future. The book can be read in different ways: flipping through the comics or reading the texts, devouring the book in one sitting or reading chapter by chapter. From front to back, or vice versa. Doesn’t matter, any way is good. But one thing is essential: a city is not made at one moment, by one person, but over many centuries, by all its inhabitants together. And if that was true in the past, it is also true for the future. You have a voice, use it!
By now, the book has already been distributed to about 20,000 seventh graders in Rotterdam, over three school years. In total, we will do this for five years and almost 40,000 young people in the city will have learned about Rotterdam, their city, in an inclusive and fun way.

More than a book

The past few years have shown that the METRO O1O book is much more than just a book. The book makes a valuable contribution to the discussion about the city’s identity and it touches on issues with which everyone can identify.

+ talking together about the IDENTITY of the city
+ stories with a COLLECTIVE narrative
+ creating social COHESION
+ a CONCEPT FOR CITY DEVELOPMENT that works differently
+ POSITIVE appreciation for CITIZENSHIP
+ the city as one big CANVAS

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Groningen and Berlin

The project has since been replicated in the cities of Groningen and Berlin with 3,100 and 38,000 seventh graders per year, respectively. A local team of historians, authors, illustrators, art and cultural institutions, teachers and students are working on their own version of a richly illustrated book about the city’s history.

In the run-up to the Groningen Book, the city of Groningen has expressed its ambition to involve young people in the development of a new structural plan for the city in 2025.
Many of Berlin’s cultural institutions have already generously pledged their cooperation in the book project: Berlinische Galerie, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Stiftung Berliner Leben, Stiftung Stadtmuseum, Aedes Architektur Forum, Netherlands Embassy, Landesdenkmalamt Berlin, Literaturhaus Berliner and the Zentrale Landesbibliothek Berlin (ZLB). Talks are under way with the Senate of Education and visitBerlin. The Berlin book will be published by JOVIS Verlag.

Photography

The city of Rotterdam has many faces: well-known and world-famous, but also unknown and sometimes unloved. This book about Rotterdam contains photographic renderings by Loes van Duijvenbode and Elizar Veerman, of places that want to be unrecognizable, places with their own everyday aesthetic beauty. Places that invite you to take a closer look and examine the city, your own living environment.

A city is primarily made by the people who live there. The book offers five photographic portraits of young city dwellers, each of whom explores in their own way how they interact with the city. The photographs invite you to explore the city, to think about which place is important to you and to see the beauty of everyday city life.

Photography: Loes van Duijvendijk

Poem: Vienne Lisa Haagoort

Poëzie

A city has many voices. And those voices can be heard. Also, in words. Four urban poets, Moze Naël, Benzokarim, Mariana Hirschfelt and Vianne Haagoort, have written an ode to the city for METRO O1O.

The makers

A team of nearly forty Rotterdammers worked for over a year to create an extraordinarily richly illustrated graphic novel, METRO O1O: illustrators, cartoonists, writers, (architectural) historians, photographers, city poets, editors and designers. A book FOR Rotterdammers and BY Rotterdammers! See below all those who contributed to the book.

Initiator, concept & art director
Ellen Schindler (De Zwarte Hond)

Story
Abdelkader Benali

Cartoonists and illustrators
Boy Akkerman
Marvin Brown
Dodici (Edoardo Trionfera)
Bruno Ferro Xavier da Silva
Stang Gubbels
Edwin Hagendoorn
Saskia de Klerk
Hanco Kolk
Vera de Koning
Esther Malaparte
Egon de Regt
Sterric (Sterre Richard)
Sai Rodrigues
Marcel Ruijters
Martijn van Santen
Rachel Sender
Gwen Stok

Drawn city maps
Nadia Pepels (De Zwarte Hond)

Historical text
Michelle Provoost (The future scenarios of Rotterdam 2050 are based on the Citizens of the Anthropocene studio of the Independent School for the City).

History text and Did you know….
Han van der Horst

City Poetry
Benzokarim
Vienne Lisa Haagoort
Moze Naèl
Mariana Hirschfeld

Text editing
Tijn Boon (publisher De Meent)

Photography
Loes van Duijvendijk
Elizar Veerman

Project management YOU
Maartje Berendsen

Graphic design
ARK (Roosje Klap) i.c.w. Tijmen Stieber (De Zwarte Hond), with thanks to WOAU!(Léon Kranenburg)

Publisher
nai010 publishers

Print
Die Keure

Image collaboration partners
Alexandra van Dongen (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen)
Hanneke Kempen, Patricia Mensinga (Maritime Museum)
Corinne Lampen, Aura Pattinama (City Archive)

Images from collections
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (MBVB)
Maritime Museum (MM)
City Archives of Rotterdam (SAR)
National Archives (NA)
Museum Rotterdam (MR)
Dutch Photo Museum (NFM)
Rijksmuseum (RM)
Royal Collections, The Hague (KV)

Photography Maritime Museum
Eric van Straaten

Photography Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Studio Buitenhof, Tom Haartsen, Jannes Linders

Foto: Loes van Duijvendijk

Partners

A city is not made by one person. Neither is a book. For the METRO O1O publication, we collaborated with many Rotterdam art and cultural institutions.