„Friede Freude Eierkuchen“
40cm x 40cm
Acrylic on Canvas


„Peace, joy, pancake was the proclaimed motto of the first Techno Love Parade in Berlin in 1989, which was initially necessary in the first place to declare the parade as a demonstration. Here, "peace" stood for disarmament, "joy" for music as a means of international understanding and "pancakes" for a fair distribution of food
Peace, joy, pancake is also a phrase that describes a superficially intact, seemingly peaceful and carefree facade within a society. It is often used to express that one displaces problems rather than solving them.“
Source Wikipedia Germany





Peace Joy Pancake is a fusion of abstraction, symbolism and geometric abstraction. With his typically optimistic color mood, Stefan Goertz has created a work of many layers that seems to be three-dimensional even in monochrome zones.

A picture full of contrasts, which on the one hand brings joy when the interplay of old gold and turquoise in the background cheerfully encloses the pastel-colored peace sign, on the other hand, there seems to be an oncoming disturbance, the peace seems to waver, you see blood or is it just an abstract layer of red ?

The peace sign, which at first glance is arranged centrally and thus constructed like most of the artist's works, seems to start slowly moving away from the center. It is beautiful, but it also has a certain amount of restlessness in it. Also, the viewer can not be sure if the explosions, which seem to be abstract versions of 8-bit video game detonations, are destructive or just fireworks.

In any case, these detonations as well as the title, the choice of color and a symbol often used in a decade in which it was not so much necessary to talk about politics, talk about times in which one thought, especially in Germany, that a new shift to the right would be impossible , even frowned upon, times without digitization and gentrification. Topics with which the artist, especially in the recent past, himself had to gain tiresome experiences and which put a great strain on him.

For the artist, who has addressed the 80s and 90s in many of his works, it is on the one hand a longing for these uncomplicated, analogous times in which the social cohesion was stronger, in which he was one of the celebrating kids of the 90s on techno parties peacefully looking for the true meaning of life. On the other hand, he wants to build a bridge, a vision of the future, a way out, that still exists. In spite of all the restlessness, the optimism prevails when looking at the work; one wonders, "is it blood," also notices the restlessness and briefly thinks whether the appearance is deceptive, but in the end the picture remains a beautiful one, a decorative one even, that unites peacefully 3 different styles, abstraction, symbolism and geometric abstraction.

Like all of his paintings, the work was painted in Berlin, the artist's creative location, one of the places in the world where „clocks seem to tick differently“, especially in inner-city districts. The place he deliberately chose as home and that inspires him so much, the place where so many different people peacefully coexist, and enrich each other as a society.