Desenkadená/Unchained (Willemstad, Curaçao)

Desenkadená/Unchained (Willemstad, Curaçao)

Subject (Topic)
Curaçao--Willemstad
Public art
Public sculpture
Resistance
Slave insurrections--Curaçao
Slavery--Curaçao
Slavery--The Netherlands
Transatlantic slave trade

Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture

The over life-size bronze sculptural group depicts three figures, two men and one woman. As the title of the work, Desenkadená (Unchained) suggests, the figures are breaking free from the chains that bind their wrists. The central figure is flanked by a man and woman, both of whom gaze at him as he breaks their chains. The “chain breaker,” a muscular, semi-nude man, stands in front of an anvil. Simon captures the figure mid-swing as he raises a hammer over his head with his right hand. In his left hand he holds iron chains in place with a chisel. The work commemorates the 1795 slave rebellion led by an enslaved person called Tula.

Simon, Nel, 1938-

Photograph: Wikimedia Commons

October 17, 1998

Government of Curaçao

Cultural Affairs Department, Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sport, 24-26 Schouwburgweg, Willemstad, Curaçao

JPEG

English

Visual Arts-Sculpture

Parke Lucha pa Libertat, John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Willemstad, Curaçao

Bronze

Conduru, Roberto. "Transnational Counter-monuments: Anti-Slavery and Pro-Freedom Memorials." ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America, July 30, 2021. Accessed January 28, 2026, https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/transnational-counter-monuments/

CIPDH-UNESCO. "Desenkadená." Memorias Situadas: Sites of Memory Related to Serious Human Rights Violations. Accessed February 4, 2026. https://www.cipdh.gob.ar/memorias-situadas/en/lugar-de-memoria/desenkadena/

"The Making of the Tula Monument Curaçao by Nel Simon, 1996-1997." YouTube. Accessed February 26, 2026. https://youtu.be/R5TIUbo6aag.

Renée Ater