“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” — John F. Kennedy
“The one thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”
— Helen Keller
Born in Paris during WWII and to a family constantly at war, I know about war. A lot of my life has been searching for ways to create peace. I have been deeply involved in peace activism since I came to Santa Fe thirty-seven years ago. The question for me, in today’s crumbling world, is whether the way we usually approach activism is enough. Can our world, sometimes feeling close to WWIII, wait? How do we shake things up?
My art, because it is on the theme of Peace, is a kind of activism. Tears of the World is the performance I began in 2001 for Iraq. I stood on the Plaza in January until my big bowl of water representing the tears of the world froze. I did Tears again on February 24, 2023 on the occasion of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and again in 2024 for Israel/Palestine (on Earth Day, because the earth cannot flourish with all the wars). This performance, typical of my work, is a melding of art, activism and prayer since my path as an artist (also curator and seeker) has been the spiritual in art in our time. However, my solitary performances are taking a toll on my health. At the same time, my despair and my deepest wish for the end of WAR do not stop me from visioning.
September 21st is International Day of Peace as initiated by the United Nations’s General Assembly twenty-five years ago. My despair about the children of Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, the three wars we are most aware of (there are 110 armed conflicts throughout the world according to the Geneva Academy) is making me dream of a monumental happening, like Hands Across America held in 1986. Our HAA would be a universal call to “Cultivate a Culture of Peace,” the U.N.’s designation for this year’s theme. It could be termed Hearts Across America, or even better, Hearts Across the World.
Artists plant seeds. My hope is that this seed of creative despair bursts, like a dandelion seed head, and sends its message to all winds and all worlds. ENOUGH! PEACE IS POSSIBLE IF WE CAN ONLY WILL IT. We must do something. Tell me your solution.
With the Earth in my heart,
Dominique Mazeaud
For information, on dominique's book, The heartist's Secret/A Memoir, go to www.earthheartist.net
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