Kids Guernica

This project was initiated by ART JAPAN NETWORK in 1995, the year of the 50th anniversary of World War II. Very soon thereafter 70 wonderful paintings were already completed for this project in 30 countries:

USA, JAPAN, KOREA, FRANCE, PAPUA NEW GUINEA, NEPAL, KUWAIT, INDIA, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, TAIWAN, BANGLADESH, ETHIOPIA, GERMANY, ALGERIA, CHILE, SRI LANKA, CAMBODIA, ITALY, INDONESIA, UK, BRAZIL, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA, ISRAEL & PALESTINE, LEBANON, HOLLAND, THAILAND, AUSTRIA, BELARUS, CZECH, GREECE, AFGHANISTAN, EAST TIMOR and many more countries.

The first stage of KIDS' GUERNICA project 1995-2000 was successfully developed by ART JAPAN NETWORK and the second stage has been managed by KIDS' GUERNICA International Committee with Takuya Kaneda as coordinator.

Magnolia Albertazzi, Effie, Deniz Hasirci, Asit Poddar, Mr. Nichtas, Hatto Fischer, Jad Salman, Takuya Kaneda, Savina Tarsitano in front of the Izmir-Chios mural at exhibition in Athens Oct. 2007 Photo: Kostas Kartelias

KIDS' GUERNICA - observing the 15th anniversary in 2010

In 2010 Kids' Guernica is marking 15 years of existence.

An international Kids' Guernica festival shall take place in Ubud, Bali this August to celebrate 15 years of active existence.

In January there took place exhibitions in Nagasaki, Japan and in Tallahassee, Florida, USA. In the latter case the curator Tom Anderson organised as well the ART Symposium on "can the arts contribute to social justice." He brought about a historical account of Kids' Guernica in the form of a catalogue to go with the exhibition.

This was followed by an exhibition in Rumania in March with Prof. Abe from Nagasaki participating.

Also within this significant year Prof. Monique Kissel has set up a Kids' Guernica workshop at Saint Denis University, Paris. The works of the students shall be shown in the Municipal Hall of Vincennes, Paris. The exhibition shall start 7th of October 2010 and the official opening being on 11.10.2010. For progress of work by the students see: www.kidsguernica.eu

There will take place also actions:

in Berlin-Wedding Katia David in conjunction with Pantelis Sabaliotis, curator of the Wedding Municipal Art Gallery, will do a Kids' Guernica action in this district of Berlin known for its high proportion of foreign residents (30%) resulting in all kinds of tensions very quickly translatable in all kinds of violence. This focus upon urban life and what violence it can produce indicates that Kids' Guernica extends the theme of war to also local conflicts often started by youth getting involved in 'wrong fights' (Jad Salman).
in Ghent as part of an initiative by the police to enter a dialogue with the youth about violence in cities. This action is linked to the fact that about four years ago work was started to remember the 200 children who were evacuated from Guernica to Ghent in 1937, that is after the bombardment and the work with the memory of the survivors from that time taken up.
in Gezoncourt by Nancy with Alexandra Zanne taking the initiative

Nous avons eu l'argent pour Kid's Guernica
la Région nous donne 50% du budget
et notre communauté de communes nous donnera de l'argent, ils n'ont  
pas encore décidé combien.

Kids Guernica a Gézoncourt pres de Nancy

'In the Shadow of GUERNICA - Im Schatten von Guernica'

Exhibition by artists behind Kids' Guernica in B 26 Gallery in Kreuzberg - Berlin with opening on 21st October 2010.

The group exhibition of artists behind Kids' Guernica may involve as well a Kids' Guernica action with children from nearby schools. The idea was born during the meeting in Tallahassee, Florida, USA with Fatema Nawaz (Afghanistan / Düsseldorf in Germany) and Rosa Naparstek (New York) taking the initiative. The theme 'In the shadow of Guernica' implies that since the bombardment of Guernica in 1937 many more cities have suffered such attacks from the air, including Nagasaki and Hiroshima, but also Beirut, Sarajevo, Baghdad and many other cities. Gallery owner Volkmar Sommer and his partner Mr. Lehmann will link this to their journal made available online at www.kulturjournal.org

2009 - activities

Kids' Guernica exhibition by Theatre de la Vallee in Ecouen by Paris, France was opened on May 7th until May 18th. While younger children painted a mural called "At the end of the tunnel there is light", the older ones a mural which depicts faces of nobel peace prize recipients.

A second mural was done in Tripoli, Lebanon under the title "Together we see better - together we build a better society" with 40 children participating, twenty of them blind. It was a sort of a summer camp. Among other things the blind children learned for the first time how to use the white cane as part of survival skills.

On 21st of Sept. there was a public showing of the Belfast mural painted according to the theme "Optimism of colours" due to the initiative of Bernard Conlon. Boris Tissot, Bizzet Sandrine and Hatto Fischer were present. It meant getting to know better how precarious is a peace process.

Kids' Guernica was recognized by the European Commission as a creative and innovative project which has not been funded by the EU so far. 2009 was designated by the EU Commission as the year of 'creativity and innovation'.

Asit Poddar in India said he will be doing a second peace mural after the last one by the Blind Boys at the Academy has proven to be such a strong encounter with other than visual references for our common knowledge about wishes for peace in the world.

Kids' Guernica action in Picasso's atelier where GUERNICA was painted

This special Kids' Guernica action in Picasso's atelier in Paris was coordinated by Boris Tissot. Poiein kai Prattein supported this action by providing funds for the website done by Benjamin Cornu and by having Anna Arvanitaki and Hatto Fischer in Paris around that time. Jad Salman participated as painter in the workshop. Monique Kissel and her students visited the atelier to learn from this action but were disappointed by being a show of mere 'professional formalism'. It meant the children were effectively guided towards adopting techniques of design and computer scanning to obtain suitable images. Manuel from Ghent paid a visit to narrate to the children how his father was evacuated when a child from Guernica after the bombardment in 1937 and taken to Ghent. The children made a special gift to Jad Salman by painting a smaller mural in colour.

Gift by children to Jad Salman

This tiny mural was very much in contrast to the official mural done only in 'black and white' with the exception of a small rainbow in color. The mural was done under the supervision and control of Boris Tissot and his partner Jean Marc. It sparked the question but what should be the role of adults in any Kids' Guernica action. How this issue is perceived and evaluated within Kids' Guernica will have an impact upon future developments, in particular as to what self understanding shall prevail and how the International Committee will manage growing diversity and complexity as more Kids' Guernica actions are undertaken around the world.

KIDS' GUERNICA cultural actions, workshops and exhibitions organised by Poiein kai Prattein

Exhibition at the Zappeion Megaron jointly with the ECCM Symposium "Productivity of Culture", Oct. 17 - 21, 2007 See www.productivityofculture.org

Cultural action linking Chios, Greece with Izmir, Turkey in September 2007

Workshop and Exhibition in Chios, May 4 - 7, 2007

and in Kastelli, Crete April 2006.

Prior to that POIEIN KAI PRATTEIN participated in the International Kids’ Guernica Festival in Bali in August 2005 with the painting "The War is Over!"

and organized together with Peace Waves the Olympic Truce Youth meeting in Torino March 2005 while publishing on the website contributions by poets to the Olympic Truce movement during the Olympic Games in Athens 2004 in connection with "Poets against the War" (Sam Hamill)

Start of the Izmir-Chios mural in Chios, May 2007

Kids' Guernica exhibition with the ECCM Symposium 'Productivity of Culture' in Athens, Oct 2007

Thomas Economacos with children of Athens School 108 and participants of the ECCM Symposium "Productivity of Culture", Athens 2007

Photo: Kostas Kartelias

For Kids' Guernica actions either financial support or contributions are needed:

Needed are canvas (7,8 x 3,5 m) for paintings, paints, sketch books, drawing utensils. For documentation video camera and supplies as well as support for publication.

Funds to cover travel and accommodation expenses for children and artists acting as coordinators and facilitators.

Work in progress takes place with regards to publication / documentation / videos for online streaming.

Organizations responsible:

POIEIN KAI PRATTEIN
Hatto Fischer: Coordinator

Lycabettoustr. 23, 10672 Athens, Greece

and

Takuya Kaneda: International Coordinator Photo: Kostas Kartelias

KIDS’ GUERNICA INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE
c/o Department of Child Studies, Otsuma Women’s University
12 Sanbancho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 102-8357 Japan
Takuya Kaneda
(international coordinator)

www.kids-guernica.org

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