Shaping the present and future
The future is catching up with us. Developments to be named apocalyptically have settled in a little more than a year in a rare dimension and severity: a dangerous virus disease as a pandemic, heat waves and fires across the globe, heavy rain and tidal waves.
But shaping the future is not that simple, the future cannot be shaped without lessons from the past. Life in all its diversity is complex and that is precisely why we have to keep our goals clear in order to avoid further mistakes and to recognize and use opportunities.
Unite, don't divide.
Seek peace, don't hate.
Search and find common ground.
Reconciliation of values means many things
and has no borders.
Reconciliation of values is a challenge
- a demand for respect.
The art project Versöhnung der Werte | Reconciliation of Values would like to use public memorials to contribute combining a culture of remembrance and shaping the future.
The German artist Heinz Zolper has created sketches and models for this project. The project turns against the culture of forgetting and ignoring knowledge. With the help of art, a public discussion about growing together of society and the shaping of the future should be initiated to counteract an isolated view. This challenges, on the one hand, deep participation of the people and, on the other hand, honest support from the public sector. Against this background, the project and all those involved feel committed to the goal: Dare more democracy
Everyone would like to shape life according to their own ideas. In order to enforce this with different interests, rules are needed. Security and power are framework conditions for developing individually and for setting yourself apart as something special. But a balance of power is also required, because all life strives for harmony. This becomes the base for the great responsibility of the human being to use life for the good
The project “Reconciliation of Values” would like to contribute pushing the big questions of the present to the center of society without being restricted by what could actually be politically, economically and socially enforceable. Since art in public space is more than just aesthetic adornment and encourages it to be creative and creates the opportunity to discuss different values, there is hope for a social response without trivializing its original concern.
The manifesto is published as an art book at ArtForum Editions as open and limited edition: Remember the Future | Heinz Zolper. Public Sculptures - sketches, 2021.
The book is available at Artforum Culture Foundation, 45 EUR (open edition), 140 EUR (limited edition), plus shipping - or through art bookstores and galleries.