Dutch creative spirit Arjen van Lith, the director of the much-acclaimed Dutch Bondfilm Never Chick Out, hits again. Many things have been said, many things have been written, including by yours truly about the imminent War in Iraq (is it really imminent?), but Van Lith has a more interesting suggestion: Pornography for Peace.
He made a series of illustrations, suggesting activites that are far more interesting than bombing Iraq.
Arjen Van Lith based the typography on the works of Paul Mijksenaar, specialist in psychonomy and signage, who designed for instance the lettering on Dallas Fort Worth Airport, Schiphol Airport, and the Dutch Railways, and who is the co-author of the very funny book Open Here. The figures are inspired by Italian jazz musicician-turned-graphic designer Pippo Lionni who created the font ‘Facts of Life’. The goal of Pornography for Peace is obvious: a last chance for the world to refrain from war. « It is not ‘Make love, not War’, which is typically something for our parents, » Van Lith explains, « it is the ACT of love itself that implies a pacific solution ».
Van Lith sent the guide to a handful of world leaders, Kofi Annan, ‘president’ George W. Bush, Saddam Hussein, president Jacques Chirac, chanceller Gerhard Schröder, Rev. Tony Blair, president Wladimir Putin, and the clumsy prime-minister of the Netherlands, Jan Peter Balkenende. So far no leader has been so polite to respond to Van Lith’s initiative. It is also unknown whether one of the suggested positions are currently being brought into practice by these men. Maybe they are just Masturbating for Peace…
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