Hubert Bader
“I love film music.” A vivid memory that still stays with me is when I was three years old, and I saw a fish in a small wooden box at the neighbour’s house. The fish was dancing upright on the water with its tail fin, and even though the box was open on the side, the water with the fish didn’t spill out.
This fascination from back then has stayed with me to this day. My enthusiasm for film soon expanded to film music. As a young boy, I would sit in front of the TV with a cassette recorder and record the theme songs from movies and TV shows.
With the image “I love film music,” I wanted to create a small monument to this passion. I thought about which film character would immediately come to mind along with its corresponding melody.
“The Birds Are Still Singing.” I grew up in a very musical family. Music was and still is an important part of my life (I sing in two choirs). Therefore, it’s almost unimaginable for me to exist without music, as people currently do in Afghanistan. In conservative circles, singing women have always been equated with prostitutes. Since the Taliban regained power, musical instruments have been destroyed, and a ban on women singing has been imposed. Only religious war chants (Taranas) are allowed, but according to the Taliban, these cannot be considered music. It is also forbidden to view (or even create) images of people or animals.
To draw attention to this inhumane situation, especially for women, I was motivated to paint “The Birds Are Still Singing.“