……………..……………..…
Stationsplein
– from 16h00 to 17h30
Team
– Claudia
The war will
start this week, the media says, hence everyone says the same thing. After a
hard working morning with Claudia transporting clay, talking about art, life
and war, I decided that it was necessary to go out again and to a crowded place
- Central Station between 4Pm and 6PM.
First
relevant commentary of the journey: (I have some buttons badges in my bag, one
is an art project -Kun(s)t
–the other is about being a LEGO builder) Claudia told me, -If you had a button against the war in
your bag you‘d be an activist – Which brings up the question -am I
not an activist, and an artist- Which one is the more visible? Does it matter
for the passer-by, potential participant to know whether I am one or the other,
or both?
We arrived
at Central Station, at the busiest door there were two huge horses with
policemen sitting on them. Ok, let’s just take the other door, to keep a
low profile and see how long we can stay.
Immediately,
one of these “hanging at the CS” kind of boys came to us and asked
what it was all about, and more important, what do I gain with it- in the sense
– ‘why do you do it, for money or for the cause?’ To which I
had to respond ‘for the cause’, while doubting a little bit what my
cause is actually. But in the end he put it quite precisely- that the great
thing about it is that you don’t need to ask people their opinion about
the war issue, they just show it.
After we
hung around for a while eating ice cream, a I guy in a wheelchair was searching
for the responsible for the piece, so we implicated ourselves by moving the
platform to another position.
It turned
out that this man was an ex-Iraqi soldier, wounded in the war by a hand
grenade, a refuge in the Netherland’s, and also here to receive medical
treatment, not available to him in Iraq and without which he couldn’t
survive, and he cannot have in Iraq. A person living with the double feeling of
wanting Saddam out of power and hoping that the war would do it, but also
afraid for all his family and the people of Iraq. So he told us a little about
his life, his opinions about the war and the politics, pointing out a very good
issue, that even the countries that don’t support the war are doing it
not for the people or moral reasons, but for economic reasons - they just will
loose too much money with this war.
We kept
talking with some people, some miss Bin laden on the scene (always, I guess
because he is also a symbol of war and power- someone said today ‘then it
would be the 4 terrorists together’). Others find it good work, and guess
that it could be nice to do it.
At one
point 2 girls started to play, one playing for the other, and then the one
watching started making pictures of the friend’s play.
Claudia
left and I stayed a bit longer, moving the structure to the busiest door, and realising
that the PVDA party was also there giving out flyers announcing the next
demonstrations against the war on 22nd of March, Amsterdam. I wondered if it
would be bad to be connect, Act 2, to a political party or an anti-war
movement. But it seemed ok to be a bit in between, for a day that started with
the difference between an artist and an activist – Activists wear buttons
and maybe give out flyers.
At 5PM,
rush hour, ‘too busy to stop, don’t want to miss the train’,
but same impact was made. Guess people really ask themselves ‘what is it
all about’, these puppets, the war. And even today I spoke with Claudia
of the feeling of impotence regarding the decisions of those in power. Sun
coming down… until next time… hope still in a “sort of
“ peaceful state.