PASSAGE

Nour-Eddine Jarram, Dieter Mammel, Hans de Wit

watercolours, paintings, work on paper

4 June through 3 July 2016

The refugee crisis dominates the daily news with heartrending images. At the same time, political disagreement on how to deal with this issue is on the rise; should we receive refugees in the generous manner of Merkel and Trudeau, or close our borders in response to xenophobe, nationalistic sentiments ? An increasing number of individuals are also reacting to the crisis. Although in a different way to the refugee, we also find ourselves in a state of transition or passage that forces us to reassess our moral principles and our world view. In Berlin, Dieter Mammel (1965) has been working with Syrian and Afghan children for some time now, he uses drawing and painting to help them cope with their traumatic experiences. In his own work he has picked up the refugee theme in paintings of overcrowded boats depicted in a semi-abstract way

From a strong sense of emotional involvement, Nour-Eddine Jarram (1956) produces watercolors of refugees in which details like a girl’s doll or a mother rocking her baby make the human tragedy tangible. Hans de Wit (1953) shows work on paper that, in an almost hallucinatory way, represents the threat of drowning as well as evil in the shape of a monstrous figure.
Apart from these works, Dieter Mammel and Matthias Grübel’s video Tell me where you coming from is shown in which Syrian and Afghan refugee children tell the stories hidden behind their drawings.
On Saturday June 4th two other exhibitions dealing with the refugee crisis will open, at Pulchri Studio: Refugee Art and NEST: Trespassages
see: www.pulchri.nl and nestruimte.nl