Hansa told me, that one morning he woke up with an idea for this painting: “A child or baby, an image of future humanity plays in the firewater of our technological dreams. All our problems arise from wanting more and more and more, while it should be less and less and less… People try, I think in vain, to avoid this dichotomy through technological innovation. This painting reflects on a problem that will unfortunately not disappear the coming decades.”
And then, he translated this idea into an image that has been in his mind since his childhood. The composition reminds the viewer of several well-known paintings of Saint Martin. Indeed, the story of the saint was a starting point for ‘Broos’ (‘Fragile’). Hansa describes his process:
“The myth, or legend of St. Martin has been with me for as long as I can remember. I was born in Utrecht and he is the patron saint of the city. He looks down on the city from the Dom Tower, that has been the highest tower and a spiritual centre of the Netherlands for a long time.
The legend of Martinus the Roman soldier appealed to me greatly in my youth. For me as a boy who envisioned his future as a sculptor, it was a great event when a statue was placed on the square in front of our church. Saint Martin sitting upright on his horse wearing only half of his cloak as he gave the other half to a poor man. In our multicultural and multi religious society today, this saint still embodies a lasting value: compassion.
With Saint Martin in mind I look at our world on fire. The fire fighter sits on a horse because he must refer to St. Martin, the embodiment of compassion since the Middle Ages. In this painting I replace the poor man with a toddler. The naked baby is the symbol of the innocence and the vulnerability of coming generations who inherit our world. He/she plays in the firewater, aware of no harm.
The future of mankind is at risk because of all the different threats at the moment. Besides conflicts and wars, climate change is beginning to become obvious even to the most fervent denier. Devastating heat waves and fires are everyday news nowadays. Large areas will become uninhabitable in the foreseeable future. The only way to change or slow this process down is by adhering to the Paris climate agreement. For some reason, the actual willingness to do so remains limited.
On the news we see brave fire fighters who defend our habitat. Here we see one of them, equipped with the most modern fire helmet. The helmet is a technological invention, one of the many we think we can fight the consequents of consuming more and more instead of less and less. Also, such a helmet covers human emotion, the presence becomes more neutral.
The firefighter tries to protect the child by throwing a thermal blanket, referring to the half cloak that Saint Martin threw to the beggar.”
Looking at this image we might ask ourselves: Who will stand up for the coming generations in this storm? Who will stop in front of the sizzling fires and dwell on the wellbeing of the coming generations who beg us to do something? Who are the Martins of our times with a pragmatic kind of visionary compassion, who can put aside their self centeredness and are able to give something of their own to protect the other?
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Image: Hansa Versteeg: Broos (Fragile), 2022, oil on canvas, 125 x 125 cm
Written by Anikó Ouweneel-Tóth