by Herbert Hermans

Artwork Description

Don't shoot the piano player

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This painting is one of a series of paintings that inspired Bert by a visit to de old factory CHV Noordkade in Veghel in the Netherlands. Bert situated in this strange environment one the worst cases of Dutch post war history. The scene was situated in July 1995 in Srebrenica, Bosnia. The Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic was at that time shouting at the Dutch commander Thom Karremans. “Don’t tell me nonsense”. “Answer my questions! Did you give orders to fire at my troops?” The commander Karremans with moustache looked exhausted (in the painting sitting behind a piano, in contrast to reality). He rubed his eyes, and mumbled something about a piano. “I’m sorry?” asks the interpreter. Karremans elucidates: “I am a piano player. Don’t shoot the piano player.” Mladic shouts: “You are a poor piano player. Are you a married man, do you have children?” Nobody could miss the implicit threat. Instead of shooting the piano player, Mladic’s soldiers shot about 8,000 Muslim men whom the Dutch were meant to be protecting.

Artwork Details

Medium: Painting Oil

Genre: Architecture