In war someone has to die

Yesterday I heard about the Danish artist Hanne Bang`s art project "In war someone has to die". Women all over the world are invited to join and to do an embroidery on an handkerchief with the word written in their own language.

This is Hanne`s story behind the project:

"My new art projekt is called "In a war someone has to die".
A couple of years ago I happened to zap by a TV program, in which a journalist was interviewing a professional African soldier. To the soldiers great disappointment he was out of work at the moment – because there was no war in his region.
The interviewer asked the soldier if he was afraid of dying, and the soldier said: “No I am not afraid of dying. Are you afraid of dying?” The interviewer answered: “Yes I am afraid of dying”. Then the soldier said, without any sentimentality: “In a war someone has to die”.

This little dialogue, and the words “In a war someone has to die”, returned back to me over and over again. Of course I knew that in wars people die, but suddenly I saw the essence and the reality of it very clearly.
These words are the main element in the art project. I use this sentence – these harsh words – in a feminine expression, as handkerchiefs and embroidery are. "

I immediately decided to participate. I have many reasons to do so but the most important one is my father. His stories about the world war II was an important part of my upbringing and has in some was made me the one I am today.

At the age of 14 my fathers village where overtaken by the Russians and all villagers where told to line up on the village square. Men in one line and women and children in another. My father being only 14 went and stood by his mother and younger brother but was brusquely told to go stand with the men. His mother then went inside their house to fetch him a blanket but at the same time the men where signaled to march and it was the last my father ever saw of his mother. He spent 1,5 years in an Siberian labour camp and was released when the war ended. He weighed only 35 kilos had dysentery and tubercolosis but survived in a world where so many others died.

I chose and old vintage handkerchief for my embroidery. I think I bought it at a jumble sale once. It is fragile, discolored and has a tiny monogram in one corner. The monogram got my imagination going.....thinking about a mother, wife or sister crying over a loved one sent off to war. Thinking about the fact that there are so many wars and in war someone always has to die.

I have traced the text to the handkerchief and will try to finish the embroidery this weekend. Then I will send it off to Hanne. If you want to participate too this is how you do it:

Embroider the text on a handkerchief;
"In a war someone has to die" in your own language.
Deadline: April 2012
Send it to:
Hanne Bang
Saettedammen 18
3400 Hillerod
Denmark

Take care
Jeanette