"Why can't we talk , at least?" , by Erik Pevernagie, oil on canvas,100 x 80 cm

We sometimes wonder what is really going on in the back of the mind. We would like to understand what actually happens in the mood of all those people who live on the edge of loneliness and emotional poverty. They seem to be denied of every sense of community and expelled from any intimacy. They are like life outcasts, deprived of physical or linguistic contact. Feeling deserted by affection, they may be drinking their way out and are finally reduced to silence.

Conversation is the foundation of a democratic coherence. Often people are only intersecting and use only monologues. There is no conversation, no dialogue.

Short circuiting each dialogue and blowing up any attempt to come to a compromise is a bad policy. Leaving the arena of discussion in anger and slamming doors is certainly not a brilliant way to solve problems either.

On real stage Aeschylus was the first in history to give the dialogue the leading part (and no longer the monologue). We could adopt his principle and perpetuate it on the stage of life. So we have pleasure to give a special salute to Aeschylus.

Phenomenon: Communication, dialogue, conversation

Factual starting point of the picture: Back of two men, one leaving