What kind of world do you want, really? I want a world where people are being appreciated
for their own capacity and creativity, instead of being economically valued.
I believe in a world where you take initiative, where you shape life your way and
give power to your passions and talents. Where forward means more than technological
progress, namely that everyone is given space to develop and where people grow larger
than numbers. I'm driven by fascination and curiousness, for you, and you, and the rest
of the world. I say; don't be against everything until you forget your dreams.
I decided to say what I want and believe in rather than what I hate or dislike.
Let's push the world forward, create personal revolutions and give people a push
over their invisible threshold!
Many years ago, I went out in the streets of Arnhem, the Netherlands,
together with my friends. We started spreading posters with our thoughts,
opinions and poetry, to cheer up the streets with colourful ideas.
I'm turning 22 soon, and this group of friends has both grown and changed.
I have friends in Ljubljana and Arnhem, Moscow and Merelbeke, Sweden,
Mexico and Argentina… all over. In some countries there is a big group,
that existed for years and have seen many people coming and going,
who are sticking posters, writing texts, even making books.
In other places, one or a few people are spreading texts at their university,
school or work, writing texts over the internet, sending me a letter every now and then… to be honest my texts are much more widely spread than I know. Someone just told me that there are texts of mine painted on the walls of a youth hostel in Nicaragua, and last year friends of mine went to Spain, where they were introduced to a magazine that just had made a pages long article about the poster collective Loesje, in Spanish!
Why keep your right to remain silent, when you have freedom of speech?
Everyone has opinions, somewhere, and I'm interested to listen.
I want to hear what you think, to push you into creating an opinion and
to make it heard. To inspire discussions, at the bus stop where I stuck
a poster yesterday and you have to wait five minutes longer in the rain, today.
React, in your way, to what you hear, observe and like or dislike around you.
Find things ridiculous or oh so funny. Laugh out loud in public; be loud and
over-enthusiastic among cold faces in the metro. Think further and share your thoughts.
Dare to be deep when things are being too superficial, dare to laugh when it's all too
serious.
Posters are always known as an effective mean for spreading opinions or making voices
heard. Besides, sticking is fun; to discuss with by passers, sometimes even the police,
to hear reactions, to agree or disagree and to think in new ways.
Writing texts together is another way to communicate opinions and exchange ideas.
That's a reason why I'm also visiting other groups and giving workshops in creative
text writing.
'Who are you?' 'What do you want?' I could write a whole Bible or Koran about what
I want. But would you have time to read it then? I'm making short texts,
so accessible that you can read it while flying by on your bike. 'Seek it out' I say.
Look at the posters, at all the texts, they are all reflecting some part of me,
of Loesje and the worldview I want to bring forward.
Conquering the world with creativity and posters