Ethiopia & Starvation - PROPOSAL NR. 19 + GIFT, Anno Dijstra

This is the third of the Madrid Abierto exhibits -- "PROPOSAL NR. 19 + GIFT" by Anno Dijstra. This is actually the first thing that caught my eye from the Madrid Abierto installations. I was walking down the Castellana between Colón and Cibeles on the way (ironically) to check on some five star hotels for a pianist who is coming in April to play for some of the more distinguished political figures and musicians on our behalf. It's a great honor to have him. But the irony comes when I passed this statue of a starving boy in Ethiopia, in the middle of the sidewalk.

I had just gotten back from Paris and looked at a friend's pictures of shantytowns in Africa, feeling a bit of the tension between the way the west lives in comparison with much of the rest of the world. I had also begun to read "Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne which also points out this disconnect between the way most of us live and are completely (or nearly) oblivious to what is going on around the corner, in another part of the world. Now I don't think we all need to move to Ethiopia, but I do think we (including myself) can be more conscious of how our lives affect others, challenge ourselves and others to make a difference in the well-being of others by living a bit more simply, and by educating ourselves about what really is going on around the world. I mean, if we live in the richest countries in the world, our countries and people are probably in a place to help and to make a difference.

So, anyway, I saw this statue which is the size of an actual kid and where you can see his bones and enlarged, malnourished stomach. And in the background there is a strategically placed car with a trunk full of food. I thought about what an incredible idea it was to bring that which is so far removed from our daily lives (at an emotional and conscious level) to our normal, everyday life.

"Obliged seeing

A witness of the famine in Ethiopia in 1984, 14 years old, Anno was watching television at home.

A memory of a scene seen on television. An image with which one is not directly related to, immaterial, elusive, without a location, floating through the air. One can't go back to the place where the drama happened. The television in the living room is the location where it happened, but the television shows already other images and there is nothing in this living room that refers to the drama.

How free is watching without engaging? In other words, can a witness become guilty because of what he sees?." (taken from http://www.madridabierto.com/en/artistical-interventions/2008/anno-dijkstra.html)