“Peace” is a 4,5m x 1,75m oil painting by Hermann Sebastian Schultz accented with a sound installation made in collaboration with Santeri Pilli.
The artwork depicts a scene in which a group of people are gathered together for what seems to be a dinner party in a beautiful garden. The table is filled with food and wine and the environment is vibrant and pleasing to the eye. Despite of the visually pleasing environment, the people portrayed in the image are engaged in a social conflict situation building clearly visible tension between the characters.
The Norwegian sociologist and peace researcher Johan Galtung divides his understanding of peace into negative and positive peace. Positive peace meaning the absence of structural reasons that lead to war, and negative peace meaning the absence of weaponized conflict whilst the structural reasons that lead to war are in place.
The artwork strives towards raising questions about what we collectively think about when we think about peace.
Can peace and conflict coexist simultaneously? Can social conflict play a role in establishing or maintaining peace? Are we currently experiencing peace? If so, what kind of peace?
Sebastian Schultz is a Tampere-based muralist and fine artist with nearly ten-year experience in the creative field with emphasis on producing and curating large scale public artworks. Schultz holds a BA in Culture and Fine Arts.
You can find more information about the artist on his personal webpage:
https://hsschultz.com/about-me/
Visit the other artworks displayed on imageandpeace.com here:
‘Reimpressions’ by Ana Catarina Pinho
‘Between violence and peace’ by Shihab Chowdhury
‘Sarajevo Roses and Clouds of June’ by Sheung Yiu and Samra Šabanović