WITH MURALS CREATED
BY CHILDREN IN AFRICA, ASIA, AND The Americas
Montpelier, Vermont—On World
AIDS Day, December 1, 2005, the visual voice of thousands of children
worldwide who are affected by HIV/AIDS will be exhibited in communities
around the world and at three international mural locations.
Sponsored by Development and Art
through the Institute for Social Ecology, the International Peace
Tiles Project seeks to raise awareness about the vulnerability of
children and youth to HIV/AIDS, and to provide them with a dynamic
means for self-advocacy and self-expression. More than 500,000 children
under the age of 15 worldwide have died of AIDS and more than 2
million children under the age of 15 are living with HIV/AIDS, according
to recent figures from UNICEF.
Already more than 1,000 children
worldwide have created Peace Tiles during workshops on AIDS awareness.
Peace Tiles workshops have been held for children in communities
across the globe, in countries including Bangladesh, Cameroon, Costa
Rica, India, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Nigeria,
The Gambia, and the United States. Each of the three international
murals are composed of individual wood panels (called “tiles”)
produced by children in the countries participating in the project.
The tiles were sent to the Peace Tiles project in Vermont where
they were arranged into murals.
Each tile is an intimate, personal
work of reflection and expression. The painted surfaces of each
tile are covered with a myriad of images and objects from the children’s
lives. On one tile from Thailand, an HIV-positive AIDS orphan placed
a currency note left to him by his parents, expressing his hope
that other children with HIV/AIDS would have what they need to survive.
Children in Senegal, West Africa, used bright beads to decorate
the surface of many of their tiles. Other children used seeds, string,
sand, magazine clippings, stamps and many other materials and artifacts
to create their compositions.
The resulting murals are vibrant,
inspired, and dynamic works that bring together these “visual
voices” of children affected by HIV/AIDS around the world.
The three international murals
will be displayed on World AIDS Day in the following locations:
· Zasekhaya Market
at the Newtown Bus Factory, an artists’ cooperative studio,
exhibition and community space in the Newtown district of Johannesburg.
The exhibition is being coordinated by Artist Proof Studio, Visual
Arts and Crafts Academy (VACA), and the Zasekhaya MarketSouth
Africa was selected as a mural location because it is home to
the highest levels of HIV infection, and the first place on earth
where AIDS mortality rates have surpassed infection rates
· Soochana Kendra,
Jaipur’s famous “information center,” will house
the second international exhibition and celebration organized
by Gram Bharati Samiti, an association of rural women and youth.
GBS organized more than six workshops across Rajasthan, a state
in north In dia through which more than 600 children were engaged
in HIV/AIDS awareness-raising activities. India was selected as
a site for the international mural project because it is the place
on earth where AIDS expert expect the AIDS epidemic to next explode.
· The
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria (www.globalfund.org)
in Geneva, Switzerland was chosen as the third site for an international
mural because of the Global Funds leading role in the global campaign
to make AIDS history. The Global Fund remains the world’s strongest
institutional mechanism for the development and finance of country-specific
AIDS education and eradication efforts.
“The Peace Tiles project
empowers young people through art to share their experiences with
HIV/AIDS in an effort to increase local and global awareness about
this disease,” said Lars Hasselblad Torres, the founder
of Peace Tiles and Development Art. “Each of the international
murals represents the individual stories of kids from all parts
of the world dealing with HIV/AIDS in their families and communities.”
To create the Peace Tiles children
cover wood “tiles” with paint and photos, letters, scraps
of cloth and other artifacts from their lives that speak to their
personal experience with HIV/AIDS or their knowledge of the pandemic.
In addition to self-organizing workshops in most countries, three
artists traveled on behalf of the Peace Tiles project to support
workshops in India and Thailand. The International World AIDS Day
Peace Tiles project is a product of a global collaboration of organizations
and networks spanning the globe.
The World AIDS Day effort was sponsored
by Development and Art (www.devarts.org) and supported by ActALIVE
(www.actalive.org), Arts For Global Development, Inc (www.art4development.net),
NextAid (www.nextaid.org), Visual Voices (www.visualvoices.org)
and the Omidyar Network (www.omidyar.net).
CONTACT: For General Enquiries:Frank
Walter, 202-299-0300, fwalter@impalacom.com Lars Hasselblad Torres,
802-229-0992 lars@tagstudio.net For Site Specific Details: Bhawani
Shanker Kusum (GBS), 91-141-2530268 gbsbsk@sancharnet.inBeatrice
Bernescut, The Global Fund, 41 22 791 1911, info@theglobalfund.org
Kate Chisholm, Visual Arts and Crafts Academy, 083 277 1290 katherinec1@telkomsa.net
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