Dick Verdult

This work is inspired by the 1913 orchestral music piece 'El Cóndor Pasa' by the Peruvian composer Daniel Alomía Robles, which is now part of the Peruvian cultural heritage. In 1970 Simon & Garfunkel added English lyrics to the melody and released 'El Cóndor Pasa (If I Could)'. During the 1970s 'Operation Condor', a United States–backed campaign of political repression and state terror involving intelligence operations and assassination of opponents, was officially and formally implemented by the right-wing dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America. 'I'd rather be a hammer than a nail', which is the sentence dominating the artwork, is part of Simon & Garfunkel's lyrics and for the artist can be clearly connected to the atrocity of 'Operation Cóndor' due to its cynical and selfish meaning.