Welcome to T:AP Q Volume 1 Number 2, Page 15

I've finished the model of FRIOUR Network Magazine nr 2.Here is a short description what you can find in this second issue.

September 11 was the prelude to the Afghan war and was used by Bush & co to prepare a new war against Iraq as well. So for me it was obvious I had to return to the 911 project for a new Friour issue.

Originally it was conceived as an email diary between the Jewish American poet David Stone and me. We were both shocked by what had happened and started an exchange on the "justification" of the Afghan war. It was a yes BUT or no BUT discussion that was interesting but not enough. So I asked a few illustrators I admire to send in drawings around 911. Sietse Hoeksma, an artist from the Netherlands responded with enthusiasm and abundance.


		FRIOUR #2 by Guido Vermeulen If you want a free copy, just let me know -Email me Guido.vermeulen@easynet.be
	I've finished the model of FRIOUR Network Magazine nr 2.Here is a short description what you can find in this second issue. September 11 was the prelude to the Afghan war and was used by Bush & co to prepare a new war against Iraq as well. So for me it was obvious I had to return to the 911 project for a new Friour issue. Originally it was conceived as an email diary between the Jewish American poet David Stone and me. We were both shocked by what had happened and started an exchange on the "justification" of the Afghan war. It was a yes BUT or no BUT discussion that was interesting but not enough. So I asked a few illustrators I admire to send in drawings around 911. Sietse Hoeksma, an artist from the Netherlands responded with enthusiasm and abundance.
	The whole project changed in meaning and intensity when the artist book from Ella Joosten arrived. Ella is also from Holland and reflects on art and chaos theory. I've met her a few times. She mailed me a book with 8 paintings connected with some text. It is about the transformation of a rose. The rose is a symbol of the unity and love between people that was destroyed because of 911. Each month she made a new rose painting watching the transformation of the rose in image and meaning. At the end there is a process where the rose starts reconstructing its own meaning. The shape has changed, but not the essence, is Ella's conclusion. Receiving this gift was like a turning point because it meant how can art transcend and transform even an awful event as 911 into something hopeful again. So for Friour #2, I rigorously selected art work of different artists that showed this transcendence, this drive to alter and change the horror of the terror and refuse the logic of war and hate. Friour #2 is composed in different blocks. It starts with an introduction where I answer the question where I was on 911. That allows me to make some links with other painful episodes in history: the persecution of the Cathars, the crusades and the first inquisitions. A collage and a dark prose text follow the intro. The second part are excerpts from a notebook I received from Marilyn Dammann, a landscape artist from the USA who kept a diary for a whole year after 911. Also this diary evolves from how 911 affected herself, her family and friends to a transformation away from pain, to the need for universal love as only possible solution. Marilyn's book is so beautiful - I selected two huge sections of the book for the Friour. A section where Erik "the Viking" expresses himself follows this part. It is an email on the genocide of the US amongst native populations in South American and some militant poems where he defies the nasty after effects of 911. The complete Rose transformation by Ella is half way through the magazine. This opens the gate for "The land of Nod", a long poem by David Stone. After the many email exchanges also David felt the need to transcend 911 into a serial of different long poems. The land of Nod is one of them and one I selected because he mentions also in it the ordeal of Catharism. David of course knew "my story" on where I was at 911. The second part of Marilyn's notebook introduces the Iraq theme, which allows me to end the magazine with poems from Iraq by Theresa Wolfwood. Theresa and Erik make the link between mail art contributors and the other networks, introduced to me by Sumeet Grover, who also opened TAP for me. The different sections are accompanied by the magnificent drawings of Sietse and some smaller interventions: poems from Belgian & German friends, drawings from Italy, graphical contributions from England, Germany, Canada, a splendid visual from Israel and other examples of artist books on 911 that were sent to me by German & American artists.