Spain’s Basque Country was a
personally unknown entity until discussed by Nathalia artist and social
justice/peace activist, Bill Kelly.
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| Nathalia artist and social justice/peace activist, Bill Kelly with a piece he drew following a recent operation. |
“Kelly”, as
he is known by everyone, including his wife, Veronica, has a unique interest in
the Basque County evolving from his passion for both art and peace.
A
decades-long interest in the Pablo Picasso painting “Geurnica” created in
response to the bombing of the Basque Country village in northern Spain, by
German and Italian warplanes the Spanish Civil War on the eve of World War Two,
has left Kelly with a unique perspective of Geurnica.
An American
by birth who has lived in Australia for decades, Kelly has a third allegiance
which is almost as powerful as both his birth and now home-place.
Much of
Kelly’s art has a sense of yearning for peace – the essence to Picasso’s
“Geurnica” and he visits there at least annually to contribute to ceremonies
recognizing when peace died at the Basque village in 1937 and is now reborn.
With personal
interest in everything of the Basque Country ignited by Kelly, it was
fascinating to learn that a professor of political and social philosophy at the
University of the Basque Country, Daniel Innerarity, is a prolific author of
books discussing the human condition.
“Humanity at
Risk: The Need for Global Governance”, a series of essays edited by Innerarity
with Javier Solana, includes a quote from the a founder and editor of the daily
Il Manifesto, the late Luigi Pintor, who said, “A society that assumes growth
as its goal is like a person who considers obesity an ideal.”
Following the
Pintor quote was an essay by Dimitri D’Andrea from the University of Florence
in which he discusses the globalized risk and global threat for future
generations from climate change.
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| The famous "Guernica" by Pablo Picasso. |
D’Andrea
wrote: “The fact that global warming is rooted in the ‘economic innocence of
day-to-day consumption’ makes the catastrophe threatening us doubly
unthinkable; unthinkable for it is too big for us to imagine and unthinkable
because it is difficult to trace back to normal everyday life”.
The
involvement of Basque Country thinkers in this social dilemma is not surprising
for although they are relatively simple people who have lead equally simple
lives for centuries, they are recognised deep thinkers who have contributed
much to the world community.
The
unannounced and unprompted attack on Geurnica in 1937 ruptured modern life in
the Basque Country and in a seemingly disconnected way prepared the Basque
people for the certain rigours that a changing climate will bring.
Kelly has
been privileged to watch the Geurnican people recover from that sudden and
violent rupture of their peaceful lives and within that play an important part
in the rebuilding of the community; a community, for their work towards
reconciliation and environment, named as a “UNESCO European City of Peace”. They
are now far better able to, and are preparing for a different future.
