The Way of Dutch Flesh

While the world flat refuses to get any less cruel, many people are even less inclined to face up to death and suffering. Even a butcher no longer dares to hang up the cadaver of an animal in his window. People only dare to offer a dead animal for sale cut into rectangular bits and wrapped in plastic. Not long ago, things were different. For instance, in the youth of the young Frisian artist Martin Winters. In his The Way of the Flesh he returns to the impressions of death and sex in his childhood; for instance he returns to the abattoir and stares death in the face. The Dutch film-maker Albert Seelen also stared into the eyes of death and made an early end to his career and his oeuvre. This macabre perfectionist, wrongly forgotten, left the striking Hosanna, a monument to death, rotting and decay. Cruelty is the combination of violence and pleasure. Frans Zwartjes understood and portrayed that better than anyone. A classic short film about the battle between the sexes (Spare Bedroom) and a brand new video (Turn Around) that demonstrate that he still dares to look at anything. The young Cyrus Frisch can look too, for instance at the junkie perishing on his doorstep.The grim reality is that dead flesh can also be beautiful and can serve as the subject for refined art. It is not possible to do that as concretely as the great Rotterdam painter Co Westerik did in his pink painting Vlees, but the better film-makers do their best to get near. While the world flat refuses to get any less cruel, many people are even less inclined to face up to death and suffering. Even a butcher no longer dares to hang up the cadaver of an animal in his window. People only dare to offer a dead animal for sale cut into rectangular bits and wrapped in plastic. Not long ago, things were different. For instance, in the youth of the young Frisian artist Martin Winters. In his The Way of the Flesh he returns to the impressions of death and sex in his childhood; for instance he returns to the abattoir and stares death in the face.The Dutch film-maker Albert Seelen also stared into the eyes of death and made an early end to his career and his oeuvre. This macabre perfectionist, wrongly forgotten, left the striking Hosanna, a monument to death, rotting and decay. Cruelty is the combination of violence and pleasure. Frans Zwartjes understood and portrayed that better than anyone. A classic short film about the battle between the sexes (Spare Bedroom) and a brand new video (Turn Around) that demonstrate that he still dares to look at anything. The young Cyrus Frisch can look too, for instance at the junkie perishing on his doorstep.The grim reality is that dead flesh can also be beautiful and can serve as the subject for refined art. It is not possible to do that as concretely as the great Rotterdam painter Co Westerik did in his pink painting Vlees, but the better film-makers do their best to get near. Programme: Marten Winters: De weg van het vlees, 1996, Colour/B&W, video, 15 min Albert Seelen: Hosanna, 1977, 16 mm, 35 min. Frans Zwartjes: Spare Bedroom, 16 mm Frans Zwartjes: Turn Around, video, 10 min. Cyrus Frisch: ‘Junk’ video, 10 min