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)

But the comes the hard part of making a choice between all the artists - because every single artist had been making plans and proposals to the group. So there were at least twelve plans to choose from we would say. The Japanese group had adopted one plan - so, when it came to voting, they already had six votes.

During a break Marinus Boezem studies the proposals.

It would happen that late at night one of the participants would call me at home to ask me to come and mediate the discussion because they had once more arrived at an impasse; the Japanese sculptors found that I was able to help solve the problems caused by the cultural differences. And I did feel that I was an impartial negotiator. So eventually we were able to find a solution to their different opinions about what could be a mutual project, while the personal aspects were left unharmed. The idea of misunderstanding being the lubricant of civilization caught on and all finally agreed that a suiting theme for this symposium would be the illusion of civilization - making a virtue of necessity, which is a Dutch specialty: van de nood een deugd maken. The poet, Jan Eijkelboom was ....

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