|
The
Palestinian circus school started as a dream
and an adventure. One with many challenges,
among those the possibility to find the
money to finance all the activities and the
equipments needed for the project. Since at
the beginning a dream cannot really count on
the support of donors because of a lack of
'credibility', we had to find other sources
to make the dream come true!
|
The Belgian ceramist
Anita Huybens
A
student working on her chair
|
The Belgian ceramist Anita Huybens,
her family and friends became such a
source!
As the socially-committed artist she
was, she woke up one day with the
idea of having people fixing,
decorating and transforming old
chairs that everybody had somewhere
forgotten in the house or in the
loft.
That is how many ordinary chairs –
often falling apart – were turned
into unique works of art, to be sold
in order to support the circus
school in Ramallah!
This is the story of how an idea
developed into a project involving
hundreds of people in a social and
artistic program with a common goal:
to make circus available for
Palestinian children living under
occupation and give them the chance
of of having place and equipment for
such experience!
For this purpose all the funds
collected through the Chair Project
are intended to fund the realization
of permanent circus premises for the
school.
In March 2007, the first big
artistic chairs-sale took place in
Leuven (Belgium), the home city of
one of the co-founders of the circus
school. On this occasion, almost 500
hundreds chairs, made by artists, as
well as by organizations and
schools, were sold!
|
If you want to be amazed by these
unusual and creative chairs, don’t
miss the chance to take a look at
the
blog (in Flemish!) created for
the project!
Don’t be discouraged by the
language, browse the blog and enjoy
the creative range of chairs: we
also suggest to scroll the web-page
down and have a glance at the
photo-books and videos at the bottom
of the blog!
The project inspired other people and the
Belgium organization
P.A.C. (Presence et Action Culturelles)
- a permanent education movement committed
all along to the Palestinian cause, that in
2008 launched a larger solidarity action in
support of the Palestinian Circus School!
|
|
|
The big solidarity initiative, named
Asseoir l'Espoir
(which means “Seat Down the Hope”),
took place in the French-speaking
part of Belgium where professional
artists, amateurs, schools,
academies, universities,
community-based centers were
involved in decorating and
transforming chairs to be sold
during several exposition-sales!
More…
|
Photo: © Veronique Vercheval |
|
