Dark Story

Around mid-2019, several Indonesian artists and I visited the city of Budapest for the Artist Exchange Program [AEP]. During the visit there was a place that attracted me, the "Shoes on the Danube Bank" monument along the banks of the Danube river; there were 60 pairs of shoes of various fashions and sizes, this illustrates how no one has survived (age, gender, and profession).

A memorial to the atrocities of World War II, where thousands of Jews living in Budapest were brutally murdered. They were tied up, shot on the banks of the river and then their bodies thrown into the Danube river. Before being shot by the executors (Arrow Cross Party), they were ordered to take their shoes off, because during the war shoes were a valuable commodity that the executors could wear or sell off. The Danube River is also remembered as a Jewish memorial.

Whatever the reason, war only leaves a dark story for our children and grandchildren, this "Shoes on the Danube Bank" memorial is made so that the tragedy of war atrocities does not happen again. Living in peace with each other will make the world feel beautiful.