East West (Oost West) Forum Dordrecht Holland

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Work during the East West Forum - the illusion of civilization (een illusie van civilisatie)

A hot summer it was. As far as I can remember it did not rain for forty days. During the first two weeks our working group was getting increasingly anxious, because nothing was happening - in the sense of visual results outside of the cool factory floor on which the twelve sculptors and artists were sketching and making models, and most of all - not reaching an agreement on what mutual project to realize. But, since misunderstanding is the mortar of our society, the solution would be to make a virtue out of necessity.

Heppe de Moor photographs his sculpture. It was Heppe who proposed the theme the illusion of civilization.

After a week, the Japanese sculptors agreed on a plan which they would present to the Dutch artists. [By the way: notice that I speak of Dutch 'artists' and Japanese 'sculptors'. In Holland the term 'sculptor' is too obligatory for a lot of artists; at least in the early eighties this was still a very strong conviction. A few even looked down upon those who called themselves 'sculptor'. Back to the symposium ....

organization: East West Forum working group of the Dutch Sculptors' Association 1981-1983