Once buildings start to crumble / and walls start to tumble / then true beauty is revealed. // One must seek for a second / and split structures into basic elements. // This brings us to insight” (Oppenheimer contemplating about The Big One).
Wanneer gebouwen verpulveren / en muren instorten / dan komt de ware schoonheid tevoorschijn. // Je moet een seconde nemen / om daarna de structuur in basale elementen te splitsen. // Dat brengt ons inzicht. (Overweging van Oppenheimer over The Big One).
An empty prison comes in place / where glue runs past a stone’s cast. // No, people, / that is not for understanding / that is for nót understanding / where we stand without ground / under our feet.
Een leeg gevang komt te staan / waar lijm voorbij een steenworp holt. // Neen mensen: dat is niet om te begrijpen / dat is om níet te begrijpen / waar we staan zonder grond / onder onze voeten is.
Photos taken by Drager Meurtant in old Leather Factory Oisterwijk, NL, February 4, 2014
In creating art, this artist examines human actions and the resulting society, with bonds and clefts.
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Bij het scheppen van kunst, onderzoekt deze kunstenaar het menselijk handelen en de maatschappij die hieruit volgt, met verbindingen en kloven.
The Oil Terminal at Dissension
After one village a second was build // and as so often / these contained two communities / with different beliefs. // After peevishness came quarrel / and this raised high: a full five meters. // The arrival of the oil-terminal / changed little apart from more fencing. // The bridge does not unite the inhabitants / but enables them to dwell on different paths.
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De Olieterminal bij Tweespalt
Na één dorp werd een tweede gebouwd / en als zo vaak, / waren het twee gemeentes in het geloof. // Na wrevel kwam ruzie / en die liep hoog op en wel vijf meter. // De komst van de olieterminal veranderde weinig / behalve nog meer heining. // De brug verenigt geen bewoners, / maar maakt dat de wegen gescheiden voortgaan.
the oilterminal at dissension / de olieterminal bij tweespalt
Hello, this is your virtual road assistance guide: when taking turns and determining your goal, you may ask: “is it possible that two sources form one stream?“
“Source”, mixed media of monoprint and etching, DM, 2023
Catherin Pascal Dunk and Drager Meurtant attempted to create two poems by sequential and mutual interactive exchange of lines / stanzas, and composing a joint stream of words or lyric.
At the age of one year, the artist Drager Meurtant (b. 2012) wanted to create a vision of the world in it’s infancy.
With mountains, a lake and mystical homonoid figures standing idle.
“With a few”
“The mountains that I encountered, the swamps and gadflies: for milennia remained nearly unchanged: One time the first people came, or were Neanderthals earlier? People won, but whether that was the best outcome? “
In the years that followed, the increased tendency in our world to strengthen frontiers, raise walls, and push back ‘illegal’ immigrants, became a worry and cause to doubt progression of human society.
This did in 2023 lead to transformation of the above sculpture – assemblage, into “Borders and Fences”
The lake became a place for a small city with skyscrapers.
“Borders and fences – 1”
A high gate was raised, on a scale that in real life would be 10 m high, and that makes existing roads and path dead-ends. And a refugee camp was created on the other side of the fence.
“Borders and fences – 2”
Two societies come into existence, populated by the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’.
“Borders and Fences – 3”
After the ‘Chinese Wall’ and the ‘Hardrian’s Wall’, modern society got to know the ‘Iron Curtain’, and became aware of the fences that separate Northern and Southern Korea. However, in 2024 the length of walls and fences that separate Israel from Palestine, the (U)SA from Mexico, and in several countries in Europe to impair crossing the borders for immigrants impossible stretch of thousands of kilometers…
“Borders and fences – 4”
All images and texts by Drager Meurtant, 2013 – 2024.
Often the drive is caused by the wish / need to improve living conditions and procreation.
However, the effects may be a disaster for groups indigenous for a specific area. The Black Death, or plague, caused by Yersinia Pestis is related to migration due to war or trade. In the Americas, the arrival of European conquerers did lead to massive slaughter by violence and introduction of diseases for which native people were very vulnerable.
In the 21st century, migration is composed of people hired by companies as well as refugees from counries stricken by war and / or poverty. Increasingly, migration is caused by consequences of climate change.
There is often resitance against the arrival of migrants, often with focus most at refugees.
Walls are created in Europe that exceed mileage manyfold as compared to the former ‘Iron Curtain’.
Still, demographic changes in Europe and some other areas lead to a shift towards old age and insufficient numbers of young workers to keep business going, and threats of deficient care for elderly people…
At NDSM-Fuse the exhibition – curated by Ellen Klijzing – with 35 artists has focus on the experience of refugees.
The contribution of Drager Meurtant deals with slogans / banners telling refugees to
“Go To Hell = If You Are Not From Here”
Next to the banner with this text, separate words on pieces of wood, as advised by the curator, are present to charge visitors in seeking for word combinations.
Drager Meurtant, “Frontex – 2”. 2023
Finally, the letters cut from carton to serve as template for the painted banner, are assembled as collage with additional transformation.
Drager Meurtant, “Frontex – 3”, 2023
NDSM-Fuse ON THE RUN (OP DE VLUCHT), September 1st 2023 – January 28th, 2024.
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