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Flemish museums call attention to human rights

29 November 2023

On 10 December 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted. That was exactly 75 years ago, and the Declaration is still extremely topical. All museums in Flanders are therefore jointly calling for continued attention to the importance of the Declaration and human rights. On Sunday 10 December, International Human Rights Day, you will receive a peace postcard supporting our appeal in all our museums.

Vredesillustratie V2

Pieter Van Eenoge created an illustration for November 11, Armistice Day, which he painted life-size on a wall of the museum shop (Dijver 16). The illustration is a call for peace. On Sunday 10 December, we will hand out cards with his peace illustration in our museums, accompanied by the powerful poem 'Resistance doesn’t begin with big words' by poet Remco Campert. By doing so, we want to draw attention to human rights, today and in the future.

Pieter Van Eenoghe about his illustration ‘A good gun as a bad defence’

“Weapons have never solved a war. Nor does war itself solve anything. Respect for the other, dialogue with the other and faith in the other do. But unfortunately this is not always how people are put together. The hunger for power and wealth is sometimes too great, so is the power of anger and hatred. And in an auction of all this, there are only casualties. The more weapons, the more losses. So then better there are none”.

Pieter Van Eenoge - Museum illustrator Musea Brugge 2023-2024

Vredesillustratie V2

Resistance doesn’t begin with big words

Resistance doesn’t begin with big words
but with small deeds

like a storm with a soft rustling in the garden
or the cat that suddenly goes off its head

like broad rivers
from a small spring
hidden in the forest

like a conflagration
with the same match
as you light your cigarette

as love with a look
or a touch or omething in a voice that strikes you

asking yourself a question
that’s where resistance starts

and then asking someone else the same question

Remco Campert
English translation: Donald Gardner