English
РусскийHow art can help challenge our perspective on development
On the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October, Polish Green Network inaugurated their annual Global Justice Night in Szczecin, Poland with the aim to debate global interdependencies, our role in this process and its impact on countries in the Global South.
One of the topics discussed was street art and graffiti as a tool for communicating socially engaged messages. A few days before the event, 20 teenagers took part in the workshop "Street Art for Human Rights and Social Justice" in Szczecin and Berlin. Dariusz Paczkowski, one of the best socially engaged graffiti and street art creators in Poland, worked together with the youth for several days.
The result of this collaboration, a renovated wall with message created by teenagers, will stay in the city for a long time. (See a few images below.) Workshops like this are an innovative way to promote global issues among young people. And it is because of this story that we started the Global Justice Night.
From one art form to the next, the discussion continued with visual art - film - as a tool for explaining complex problems through stories about average people who are affected by them.
The documentary Winstar Wars that was premiered in the evening tries to do just that. Winstar Wars tells a story about Tunisians who have recently faced great challenges that are, among others, a result of global dependencies and the decisions of companies or politicians from developed countries. It illustrates how democratisation processes and the development of countries in the Global South not always working in favour of these countries’ citizens. In November the movie will take part in the festival HumanDOC in Warsaw.
In a lottery, participants could win products made in the Uwezo Cooperative in Kenya, with whom Polish Green Network cooperates since 2013 (e.g. stylish handbags, double-sided hooded sweatshirts and more).
Global Justice Night aims to show that local meetings and solutions can have an impact on global issues. Development can have many faces. It is important to educate ourselves more about it and to contribute to a development that does not harm others.
The event was part of the international campaign “Catching the Train for the Development” and the European Year of Development. Global Justice Night was held under the patronage of the European Information Point Europe-Direct in Szczecin.
See more photos on Polish Green Network's flickr profile.
