Week 38 - 2019
Louis Fleckenstein, The weary Messenger, 1934. Belongs to the Preus Museum Collection
Weary messenger
Every year on the 21st of September the UN's International Day of Peace is celebrated all over the world in order to strengthen the ethics of peace among different nations and peoples. The focus of this years Day of Peace is Climate, and how the prevention of climate change will act as an important determinant for creating and keeping peace throughout the world. This topic is very current, seeing as the environmental activist Greta Thunberg has been nominated for Nobel the Peace prize.
Peace is often represented by a white dove, a symbol with its origins set all the way back to the Book of Genesis; the story of Noah. Noah entrusted a dove to fly out and see if the earth had dried and whether peace had befallen nature. The dove came back holding an olive branch in its beak. It was a sign that God had made peace. Despite the lack of an olive branch and its non-white colour, the title of this image, The weary messenger, allows us to interpret that this dove has been out working. Perhaps it has delivered important messages through the air from one politician to another?
Greta Thunberg is currently on a journey to the USA to relay a message of action; that something has to be done now if we are to save our planet. In a way, she is similar to the message behind the dove, she is the messenger. However, Greta doesn't return equipped with an olive branch, but with clear speech and a demand for action. Thus, it's not out of the ordinary that a dove nor a 16-year-old girl can become weary.