peace beyond dates

As Mary Jane wrote in her latest entry, the project for Peace is 'never - ever - over'. The 21 of September is a symbol, not a limit or a compulsory formality. So I hope you won't mind my posting the flags for peace created by our Spanish group 'Roots' today, on the 23rd. They set them flying on Friday, 21 September in the morning and I only got the photographs yesterday.

This is the Medieval stone bridge leading to the Town Hall of Valderrobres, where our ten flags are flying now and till the end of October.

As you can see, hanging the flags required some climbing skills! The intrepid Lilianne Cantó went up the ladder to hang her installation, an Earth globe made from barbed wire with branches of olive tree inside and a foam pigeon holding an olive branch in its beak.

The rest of the flags awaited their turn on the stone floor of La Lonja.

And then everyone got busy...

And the flags came alive...

Birgit Ploessner is a German painter who recently moved to Spain. Her lively blue flag is her first collaboration with our Group.

There is a poem written in German on her flag. I am really sorry that I cannot translate it.

Jordi Ferrer's flag installation depicts the contrast between the opposing forces of Peace and Conflict, symbolized by the white/blue and dark red colours.

Jordi is a graffiti artist, a video artist and a photographer. He was also the one who took these shots and our thanks go out to him through this blog too.

Ángel Vilamajó painted his flag on canvas and he didn't go about it the easy way!

The difference in styles and media speaks of a cheerful, bright dedication to the idea of Peace.

Jordi's dog. Not an artist but sooo peaceful!

Esther Hofmann is a Swiss painter who chose to live in this part of Spain with her husband. Isn't this coexistence of people with different nationalities a sign of peace in itself?

My own flag among the others.

 Silvia Sanmiquel's letter installation. It says 'peace is freedom'.

Francesca Payera's flag with the word 'PAU' on the background. 'Pau' is Catalan for Peace.
Ángel Vilamajó and Francesa Payeras run the beautiful 'Mas Marianets', a country
house and art centre that I blogged about here.

Ana Carreras' deliberately naïve flag, a world of joy and colour.

And the completed installation.

The Medieval building of the Town Hall relates Peace to History, our cultural backgrounds, the passage of time and what we all learn from it.

Peace is everywhere

Whilst I say peace is everywhere it is truer to say that once one is conscious of symbols of peace one begins to see them more.

On our recent few days away I saw and captured the images below.

©2012 Barry Smith - A conscious message scratched on a mossy wall to hold back the sea

©2012 Barry Smith - Part of a poem on a pathway in a public park

©2012 Barry Smith - A very peace-filled carry bag?

©2012 Barry Smith - Peace bag in the window display

Just having these symbols about, including colourful and joyful retro bags, encourages one to reflect on the possibility of peace - at least subliminally.

do flags have roots?

Hello everyone! This is Ersi, from Spain. I haven't posted anything in this blog for quite some time but now I have news about the 'flags for peace' project here.

I am part of a group of artists called 'Roots' and we all live in the Matarranya, a beautiful small county in Northeastern Spain. Please bear with me those of you who already knew that, I thought I'd go briefly through the details again for the artists that are newer to this blog.

We are a group of 26 and there are painters, sculptors, photographers, textil artists and mixted-media artists among us. We met last Wednesday in one of our (almost) monthly gatherings and the 'flags for peace' project was one of the issues on our agenda.

We met in a lovely place called 'Mas Marianets', a country house that also has space for exhibitions, workshops, etc. I felt like sharing some photos of our meeting with you, so you can be part of our gathering.

It's not always easy for 26 artists to commit themselves to one project, there are so many things that can get in the way: jobs, family, summer holidays, previous engagements... So, for the time being, only 10 of us have confirmed that we will fly our peace flags in September. We will hold a special meeting on the subject on 27 July and then I'll be back with more news and specific details.

Some of us will work with fabrics, others with paper and one sculptor is bent on creating an  iron flag! Mary Jane, I hope we won't put your patience to the test!

The main thing that still has to be decided is whether we will fly our flags individually (I am really looking forward to watching an iron flag fly ;) or as a group. The idea would be to join all our individual creations in a larger compound and set it out in a public space, where it would remain till the weather - and some art-loving by-passers - takes its toll on it.

I like the idea of a very large 'flag' that would be the sum of ten different parts. Peace will bring them together and their togetherness will strengthen the idea of peace.

The other important thing still to be determined is where the flag/flags will go. There were many lovely suggestions on this: 1. On a by-road skirting a forest. 2. On the shore of a nearby lake. 3. On a famous local mountaintop! (I think this one won't do at all. Not if people have to walk up steep mountain trails to find out what the heck that distant huge banner of sorts is.) 4. In the main squares of the villages in the county. This one is my favourite. It would be like an itinerant exhibition of our flags and it would also be a great way for the Town Halls to get involved in the project.

I am sorry I cannot show you any actual flags yet but we'll get there. We intend to have them ready by the first week of September. And we're sure to get the local media's attention too, on the project and on this blog.

I hope you have enjoyed the tour around Mas Marianets. I wish we could all meet in a workshop there sometime!

street art, asbury park nj 2011