| Five years ago the National Committee, which organized the celebration
of the fiftieth anniversary of Liberation, made it known Germans weren’t
welcome at this celebration. Today it still appears to take the same stand.
Five years ago we already thought this point of view inordinate, to put
it mildly. Back then we decided that for the occasion of the celebration
we would organize an exhibition with work by German gay/lesbian artists.
The German ambassador at that time, Wilhelm Haas, then wrote us-I translate-“An
occasion like this makes one thing clear: the resistance against German
aggression was not a struggle against the German people-it was a struggle
for universal human norms and values, which were violated by the National
Socialists and their accomplices everywhere in Europe. When German and
Dutch people gather here it is not because after great efforts the former
victims manage to shake hands with former perpetrators. This gathering
also reminds us that Germans were the first victims of National-Socialism.
Among them were, especially after (…) 1934, homosexuals. Nobody
exactly knows how many people in concentration camps had to wear the pink
triangle. Estimates vary from ten to fifteen thousand”.
In his text he reminds us that even after the war the position of homosexuals
improved only very slowly, and only in 1994, ‘seven years behind
Amsterdam’ a memorial was erected in recognition of gay persecution
on German soil. On this occasion a German woman said, among others, the
following. I quote, “When tolerance towards those who think differently
ceases, tolerance will cease towards those who live differently and love
differently”.
On the 25th of May Villa Lila will exist 15 years. The exhibit-group
of the Villa will contribute to the celebration with a number of special
exhibitions. To show that as a matter of fact one can celebrate Liberation
together we decided on a second edition of Freiheit/Befreiung-Freedom/Liberation.
This time we will not only invite German artists but Dutch artists as
well. Also we want to examine the theme more deeply with regards to content,
without making it into a political exhibition per se: the quality of the
art remains the main thing.
Regardingly, Willem Loog(Tilburg) will fill a wall with collage-like
paintings with thousands of minuscule portraits. A forbidding, reproachful
sight. For this see the cover of PINK, April 1999. Barbara Herrenkind
(Berlin) will show in her photographs that the fall of the Berlin Wall
induced a frenzy of architectural creativity. And Ron Ritzerfeld (Groningen)
participates with among others a painted object in which he tries to ‘normalize’
a swastika-the ancient Indian symbol for the sun which has been usurped
by the Nazis. For example.
More info on Leo Tesch: www.art-l-tesch.de
Helm de Laat
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