Hans Erni at Palais des Nations

Interview with Mr. Hans Erni, Painter

During the preparations for the exhibition “Hans Erni at Palais des Nations”, this interview of the artist was conducted in Lucerne, on July 26, 2002. The interview developed into a discussion rather than a proper interview, the topic of which was Mr. Erni’s message to UNOG staff, and in turn led to an elaborate reflection on the function of art in our contemporary global society. At 93, Hans Erni is a very active artist and thinker.

On exhibiting at the Palais des Nations

“First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the honour I received to exhibit my work at the Palais des Nations. My engagement to support the aims and efforts of the United Nations Organization has influenced my personal development and my artistic career for over 50 years. The principle of a common humanity with shared ideals, always has inspired me to work together with the various international organizations of the UN family. However small, my contribution as an artist has been in trying to raise awareness by visually communicating those specific messages that each of these Organizations wanted to transmit to the public.

To exhibit at the Palais des Nations many of the pieces which were produced during these long years, moreover at the very moment when Switzerland enters the UN, – a moment I have been waiting for for many years –, marks a milestone in my career. The Palais des Nations is a working place where a few thousand people dedicate themselves everyday to implementing and promoting the goals of the Organization. Since I feel connected to these goals, my work could not be exhibited in a better place than at the United Nations itself. Museums might put works of art in another, maybe more cultural light, but this is not always the right, true light. Having a chance to associate my work to society as a whole turns this exhibition into a very positive event.

On art and the United Nations

The specific meaning of my work to the United Nations Organization might lie in the fact that my artistic aim has always been to create an art that is universal. The notion of universal art emphasizes the general, the common, and expresses values which are important to humanity, and thus tries to fulfil an ongoing role in society. It might be relevant to evoke here the famous example of Le Corbusier’s design for the Palais des Nations, which was never executed. This design was very well thought out, with a modern concept, and it is truly a loss for architecture that it was never built. Nevertheless, for the Organization, the classic appearance of the actual building allows a timeless expression of the ideas which are being defended, and the collective goals which lie beyond the work and history of the Organization.

Similarly, one could consider the developments in contemporary painting, which mainly consist of a search for other media and techniques, going into directions that have no real link to the tradition and the practice of painting. In my opinion, the meaning of these creative experiments resides in the fact that they are manifestations, or even sensations of a specific moment in time. I am less sure about their universal value and their lasting impact in the context of art history. Art and history are related, and while walking through the exhibition, one will notice how much each of the works count as a sign of time. The posters, for example, represent universal values, but by their very subject they all refer to a specific historical event. For instance, the poster of 1954, alerting against an Atomic War, could not have been made at another, an earlier moment in time. Art (history) gives an overview of thought of all times, and shows that in the end, the great movements rather than the moments, are decisive.

Today, while we witness the downfall of many economic systems, it is important to realize that in our society there is too much fragmentation, and that we should try to approach the reality in which we live. That is why it will be and always has been my ambition to make my art universal, a filter through which the essence of a time span penetrates. I try to avoid the sensational since this only depicts a part, a fragment, but never gives the whole picture. The evolution of man can be made visible through the general only, and while employing a visual language, which is comprehensible and clear. And to approach by means of painting the wonders of our evolution, is perhaps the most sincere source for my inspiration.

When talking about the role of art at the United Nations, in my opinion all the different departments, whether it concerns the specialized agencies, WHO, UNHCR or the United Nations Postal Adminstration, have always something to convey to the public. The language of art can help the UN express the importance it attaches to the universal.

On globalization, philosophy and art

Very much related to the question of art and the United Nations is the present-day process of globalization. I am not sure whether the homogeneity of culture is a positive or a negative thing. Language is a good example. In Switzerland, for instance, the four languages have contributed a lot to the development of separate cultures of speech. But one should not lock oneself up in one’s own world. In the world today people

are speaking more and more in English, and this unifying process, guided by the media, has the positive side of reaching out and bringing people together. To see beyond your own individuality nowadays immediately means that you have to speak another language, and that you have to accept other visual languages as well. In my own experience, to travel brings about a better understanding of the other, by making known that which was foreign. This process of familiarisation constitutes a better insight into the universal, which, in the end, is the brotherhood of man.

There is a link between this and the entry of Switzerland into the United Nations Organization. One is not only a citizen of a given country, we live in a globalized world. I guess this process of globalization is negative when it takes away the richness of diversity, but it should also lead to new ideas. Today we are only in the preparing phase of defining and discovering these ideas, and the time has not yet come to speak on the philosophy of globalization. We still live in a world that identifies with categories based on the pantheon, the coexistence of different gods, all of which are embodied by humans. Alternatively, a philosophy of globalization should speak about nature, about all that is created, and celebrate its grandeur. In that sense I have a very positive attitude towards life, and I want to paint what surrounds me. The beauty of nature is too immense to be given a specific name or be measured. A philosophy of globalization therefore should be about attitude, behaviour and morals, and not about god. But we are only at the beginning of such a philosophy. Humanity knows many forms of suffering, and one of them is philosophical suffering. The greatest philosopher of all, Socrates, was murdered because of the fragmentation of religion. Chaos will reign as long as this severe fragmentation remains. In the publication we prepared for this exhibition, a few of my poems, or rather of my thoughts, are published. In one of them is written that religious wars are the worst of all. What I meant to say is that religion is made to unite and to help people, not to differentiate between them.

It is very reassuring for me that my good friend, Bertrand Russell declared when he was 92 that if someone proposed it, he would be willing to accept a new idea, even if it was undermining his own. This means that he knew when he wrote “History of Western Philosophy”, it was not an absolute truth, but it was set in time. Such is the case with globalization, which is not the end of evolution, but more of a diaphragm through which one observes the present and looks at the world ahead.

Though I am not a philosopher but a painter, whose task is to (visually) render his vision/opinion, I think that artists and philosophers could, and in a way are best positioned, to assist the UN in defining this new concept of globalization. There is no real difference between a musician, a composer, an artist or a philosopher: all try to create something which naturally stands out, is rooted in time, and finds meaning precisely through that correlation. Both independent and dependent from the present, creation is about representing the world around us, not by reproducing its forms, but in the attempt to distil the essence of what is happening, and to see how this makes it general.

Interview by Anneleen de Jong.