Art exhibition portrays trials & tribulations of kids amid conflicts

Amritsar, November 21

Pablo Picasso’s famous anti-war painting Guernica, about a town in northern Spain that was bombed by Nazis, is acclaimed for its creative commentary on the horrors of war. Art, as they say, need not always be beautiful, it may be uncomfortable, ugly or even brutally blunt, as long as it stays true to its purpose. In an attempt to engage and create a dialogue around the ongoing contemporary wars around the world, the students of Invictus International School, presented a poignant visual art installation, the ‘City of Deferred Dreams’ and ‘Sliced Watermelon’, an exhibition of immersive art experience through poetry and visual art, under the theme ‘Children’s Voices Against War’. Curated and scenographed by Parnab Mukherjee, a professional visual art curator and theatre person, the initiative transcended traditional art forms to evoke a conversation about the essence of humanity.

As a tribute to innocent lives affected by global conflicts the event has students read out poetry and perform music, while talking about the children across the world stuck in between conflicts. Parnab who has been working with children across the country and curating art workshops on the subject of war, said it’s important to engage children irrespective of the city they live in to know the realities of the world they are living in.

“There is no reason for an urban child in Amritsar to talk about what’s happening in South Sudan or Congo or Yemen. It’s not just about Gaza or Ukraine, it’s about conflicts that are being photoshopped as they are not in Western media attention.”

“The visual installation uses waste to create a work that essentially looks at war and conflict from a child’s point of view. Why children end up as collateral damage? To sensitise children about the other children who cannot go to school like them or have an equal right to live as any other person,” shared Parnab.

Parnab says that the power to swap stories is what connects them all. “While I talk to those kids about the stories of children stuck in conflict in maybe Congo or East Timor, they find their own stories. It is a way to empower them to keep fighting and to not give up.” He also says that children need to be encouraged to know about the conflicts. “If they are the ones facing this world, who are we protecting them from,” he asks.

Meanwhile, Manjot Dhillon, Director, Invictus International School, said that the purpose of the event was to emphasise the need to carry these emotions forward, aiming to build a world where the focus lies on the blooming of children rather than their destruction.