flashback - artsurprise #49

[Juan Petry]

Juan Petry - area 50 one - series 1

A warrior is dead, if we do not remember him (ancient Indian wisdom).

45 years ago I met my old friend for the first time. He took me home after an accident with my sled in the snow.

25 years ago, after his third deep depression, he asked me to make some paintings for his apartment in Cologne. He insisted that I had to paint only in black and yellow, his favourite colours. As he could not pay for them, I gave them to him as a loan.

15 years later, he fell into a deep depression again and had to give up the apartment. For many years my paintings had been around him; then he gave them all back as agreed.
Three years ago he began to leave home only at night. He was suffering from paranoia. Shortly before Christmas he committed suicide. In memory of my old friend, my paintings and what happened, I painted this art work. It will remind you of this story. So it helps both of us not to forget.

Update: The text above was written and published in 2012, now its short before 2025. So 12 years have passed quickly. Nevertheless we keep this memorial in art alive and we publish time by time some messages about this friend, his journey and the impact.

Take care of your friends.

There are no coincidences. The last few years have made us more aware of tendencies to constantly rewrite history to suit the contemporary narrative. Even if old sources have not been systematically destroyed, it remains difficult to decode them in our own present context. What better way to preserve memories than in stories that people tell each other, that are known and passed on in a decentralized manner? How helpful is it to distribute works of art in order to generate these stories and keep them alive? What happened in the small town of Flammersfeld in Germany at the end of the Second World War that disturbed this family so massively for generations? Whatever it was exactly, war ultimately only has victims. Those who are naive, stupid or evil always fall into the same trap. And again those dark clouds are gathering. Where will the amazing citizens be tomorrow?

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published by Juan Petry

#JuanPetry
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