From May 5 to July 12, a new exhibition by German artists Uwe Appold and Roger Nyssen can be seen at Museum de Schat van Simpelveld. They drew inspiration from the war diary of Sister Maria Theresia Kummer. Independently of each other, they each created a series of twelve paintings in which they depict fragments and emotions from the diary in their own unique way.
Sister Kummer, a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus, kept a diary from Huize Loreto during the final ten months of the war. As the fighting around Aachen drew closer, she described the daily life of the convent community, villagers, and soldiers in an area increasingly defined by the war.
Her poignant notes were recorded in the book Echo uit Huize Loreto (Donné Jaegers, Simpelveld-Bocholtz Local History Association).
“In the afternoon, while doing the dishes, a piece of the house’s facade suddenly comes crashing down, right in front of the refectory windows. … soldiers with machine guns are standing in front of our house. … Then the siren in the village starts sounding too, and soon there is screeching and creaking all around us.”
Passages like these form the historical source for the paintings in this exhibition. In their work, Appold and Nyssen each offer their own visual interpretation of these personal testimonies.
In this way, the exhibition brings together a historical voice and contemporary art around one enduring, topical message: stay in peace.
