Expositie grafische kunstvormen door Academiegroep KunstenHuis Idea Zeist
Modiveres, linosnede, Drager Meurtant, 2021
Kom kennismaken met de veelzijdigheid van de grafische kunst, een beeldende kunstvorm waarbij gebruik gemaakt wordt van verschillende druktechnieken zoals etsen, houtsnede, monoprint, lithografie en meer. De artistieke mogelijkheden van dit medium zijn eindeloos: van abstract tot figuratief, in zwart-wit of juist met veel kleur en van briefkaart- tot posterformaat. Zo heeft deze kunstzinnige verbeelding een kenmerkende uitstraling die eigen is aan het drukproces.
Vanouds worden grafische kunstvormen benut om de kunst toegankelijker te maken voor een breed publiek, van jong tot oud. De mogelijkheid om één beeld in grotere oplage te vervaardigen drukt de prijs.
Gedurende de openingstijden is steeds een aantal kunstenaars aanwezig om vragen te beantwoorden en uitleg te geven over procedés en de gebruikte technieken.
Deelnemers: Petra Staal, Drager Meurtant, Martien Op den Velde, Angelique van Vondelen, Marianne den Hollander, Jacomijn van Kempen, Jeanine Keuchenius en Jadwiga Everts
Locatie: Kunstruimte De Melkfabriek, Guldenvliesstraat 4H, 5211 AM, ’s Hertogenbosch
Openingstijden: vrijdag 4 t/m zondag 6 oktober & vrijdag 11 t/m zondag 13 oktober van 13 – 17 uur
The idea was to make a short trip to Paris by bus at the end of November 2023. Calculated time of departure 9.30 hours, which became 9.50 hours.
This seems like a dull road trip, at 2 hours 30 minutes on the way, N BelgiumA17 in N France, 4 hours on the wayAbout 4 hours and one minute on the way, now in N FranceHigh way in N France, 5 hours and a minute on the way
On this road hoping for good or better / while seated on the front row in a bus / heading for La Ville Lumière (the City of Light) / rain came pouring, slashing the windows / and changing the experience into murk and flashing screen scenes / of viaducts crossing the motor road.
At the entry of the ‘Peage’ (Toll road), time 14.47 hrsAt the exit of the ‘Peage’ (Toll road) at 16.07 hrs
The driver from Eastern Europe / talking to another driver crossing / the content in a different direction / in their own language / endlessly.
In the tunnel (1)In the tunnel (2)At about 6.5 hours drive, Paris is near.
Still, the driver paid attention to the traffic on the road, the lights / and he drove peacefully to the terminus / at Gare de Bercy.
Getting close to the ‘Peripherique’Readiness to remove our rubbishKeep left for the Peripherique (at 16.39 hrs)We are very near now, at 17.19 hoursExit to Gare de Paris: Gare de Bercy.
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.
The line was drawn by / two fingers of a cramped / hand of the writer who wanted / words catched in image, this time / but halfway the paper / had to experience the line let / loose of the tip of the pencil,
and / next
moved freely through space / – that served the scene – / to land in the end / in a dash, or dot / on the ceiling.
Content – where the ink was scraped, there came content (DM, 2021, monoprint)
De lijn werd getrokken door / twee vingers aan de krampachtige / hand van de schrijver die woorden, nu eens / in beeld wilde vatten / maar halfweg het papier / moest ervaren dat de lijn los liet / van de punt van het potlood,
en / vervolgens
vrijelijk bewoog in de ruimte / – die plaats bood voor de scene – / om uiteindelijk te landen / in een vlek, of punt / op het plafond.
(Text & image / terkst en beeld, Drager Meurtant, 2021-2024)
“We gaan op weg, ja, maar overal botsen we op grenzen: Grenzen die anderen stellen: fysiek, met douanecontrole, hoge hekken of soms zelfs met landmijnen. Of we botsen op limieten in normen en moraal. En, vroeger of later stuiten we op grenzen die ons lijf of geest tegenkomt”
Tentoonstelling in Kunstruimte De Melkfabriek, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, 27 mei tm 18 juni, 2023
Drager Meurtant – Staande voor het hek, lino-snede, 2018
Achttien kunstenaars uit acht landen laten hun visie zien in beeld of woord. In bijgaand boek tevens vijf essays van Richard Candidá Smith, Zhinia Noorian, David Estrada, George Kabel en Drager Meurtant, en achtergrondinformatie over over achtergrond en motief van de kunstenaars en beeldmateriaal.
Deelnemende kunstenaars
Initiatief van kunstenaars Drager Meurtant (NL), Jeanine Keuchenius (NL) en Petra Senn (D)
Verder nemen deel:
Katherine Chang-Liu (USA), Brian Dickerson (USA), Nina Fraser (Portugal), Joris van Gennip (NL), Carlo Grassini & Bill Thomas (USA), Sylvia Hubers (NL), Michal Iwanoski (Poland / UK), George Kabel (NL), Max King Cap (USA), Anna-Maria Komorowska (D), Oliver Merce (RO), Dorothee Mesander (GR), Ruth Philo (UK), Martien Vogelesang (NL).
The Milkfactory / De Melkfabriek, Guldenvliesstraat4H, 5211 AM, ‘s Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands
Brian Dickerson: ‘Vroman’ is een drie-dimensionaal ‘constructed painting’ dat aansluit bij het thema ‘Grenzen en Begrenzingen’ door het loslaten van vaste, fysieke posities
Preview (op uitnodiging) op 26 mei vanaf 15 uur
Formele opening 27 mei 14 – 17 uur
Openingstijden: Za 27/5, Zo 28/5, Ma 29/5, Za 3/6, Zo 4/6, Za 10/6, Zo 11/6, Za 17/6, Zo 18/6
Dagelijks van 13 – 17 uur.
Bill Thomas & Carlo Grassini – Welcome, collage, 2021
From early youth, with walks in province of Limburg (NL) I was attracted by half timbered houses.
The architecture consists of a construction with partitions shaped by wooden beams, often made of oak, with in the partitions twigs with loam, later bricks.
Near Slenaken / bij Slenaken, Limburg, NL (Drager Meurtant, 2012)
Van mijn vroege jeugd, met wandeling in Limburg (NL) was ik aangetrokken door vakwerkhuizen.
De bouwstijl bestaat uit een constructie met vakken gevormd door ruwe, veelal wat gekromde balken, vaak van eiken, met in de vakken vroeger takken met leem, later baksteen.
Nu kunst tot m’n dagelijks leven behoort, is er vorm gegeven aan collage – relief van een vakwerkhuis.
“Haus zur Frieden” (Collage – Relief, Drager Meurtant, 2021)
In current time, with art being part of every day’s life, a half timbered hhouse was created with collage-relief.
This year, also wood cut was used to create an image of a hamlock with half timbered homes in the mountains.
Houses and mountains / huizen en bergen (DM, 2022)
En dit jaar is er ook het medium houtsnede aangewend om vorm te geven aan een gehucht in de bergen, bestaande uit vakwerkhuizen.
In July 1978 Jaap, a study pal and mountain hike companion, and I made a journey in Greece. We had trekked in several mountain regions since a few years. After arrival in Igoumenitsa by ferry from Brindisi (Italy), we hitchhiked south to Amfilochia in the back of an open truck.
On the road: blue house and honeysuckleRestaurant (Estiatorion) in AmfilochiaAn evening stroll along the promenade of Amfilochia
The next day brought us to Patras, a city with a history of thousands of years. Already inhabited in prehistoric times, it was an important centre in the Mycenean era. After one night camp there, we continued east to small coastal village of Diakofto.
Patras: fruit seller and Jaap posing for photo.
From Diakofto runs the “Odontotos Rack-railway” to Kalavrita. It was built between 1885-1895 and climbs steeply along a distance of 22 km. We followed a path besides and sometimes on the track, that rises in narrow cleft between steep rocks. At times a viper fled from being trapped on.
Ravin being part of Vourakos Gorge with rail track
In a small cafe in Kalavryta, we were met by suspicion and animosity, expressed by elderly woman rejecting to serve us greek coffee. A younger man could explain to her, we were not German but Dutch, and then the suspicion lessened. All this was related to the big massacre by the nazis in 1943, with over 300 men killed and many houses burned.
Walking further, we heard an one-pit motor and the same young man as mentioned above pointed to a nest with six eggs in the load of three wheeled pick-up motorcycle. This gift was followed by his offer to bring us to Anolousi.Butcher and his wife and slaughtered sheep in Anolousi
Ano Lousi lies on plateau at 1100 m altitude. From here we followed the road to Kata lousi with about as many cars or trucks passing as flocks of sheep.
Plateau with Ano LousiThe road from Ano Lousi to Kato LousiThe author walking from Ano Lousi to Kato Lousi (photo by Jaap)
Near the evening we arrived by foot in the small village of Kastria. We explained our whereabouts, to what appeared to be the village elder, and soon were invited to have a glass of ouzo with several most older men at a table. Later, we were invited to join a party planned to visit the cave that had been discovered nearby, a few years earlier, by a shepherd who had lost a sheep. The party would take ‘William’, a former villager who had emigrated to the USA twenty years earlier, and who had just returned for a visit, to the site, and us alongside.
The entrance of the Kastria Cave
No ticket counter of parking for busses, yet to be seen. We were able to enter the cave for about 300 m, with the guide using an old mining-lamp (Davy lamp) and then were stopped by lakes. Nowadays, walking bridges have been created to gain acces much deeper.
Along the road from Kastria to Langadia: shepherd with milk goats
We hiked further to Klitoria and then to Dafni. On the outskirts of the small village of Dafni, there were more than ten threshing circles. These may have been created two thousand years ago… and are located in areas where the wind blows.
Village of Dafni with many threshing circles.Mule and stake at threshing circle, still in operation.
From Dafni the path led to Langadia, on the busy and touristic road from Olympia to Tripoli. A steep climb to a street 100 m higher brought us back in more rural village atmosphere and we were offered small flat grass plateau for the tent.
Langadia sales man
From Langadia we walked to Dimitsana, about 10 km south. This mountain village at 1000 m height, played important role in Greep revolt against the Turkish occupants. To our great surprise, a Dutch couple arrived soon after we installed our camp outside this village. The surprise became even bigger when they turned out to be neighbours of Jaap. No previous talk about respective travels had been made. The encounter was a pure coincidence…
Historic mountain village of Dimitsana, in 1978
The next day, our path did split, with – Jaap heading for Athens to meet family, and I continued my path alone. This will be part of 2nd blog.
drager-meurtant 