Invitation to the exhibition “Mom, I don’t want war!”
07.09.2022
The Embassy of the Republic of Poland and the Embassy of Ukraine invite you to visit the exhibition "Mom, I don't want war!" which will be presented in the Centre of Visual Art and Research (CVAR) in Nicosia between 13th and 17th September.
„A child is not a soldier, he does not defend the homeland,though he suffers with it.
Janusz Korczak
We present to you incredibly moving testimonies of war - from historical drawings of Polish children from 1946, which are a record of their experiences during World War II and the German occupation of 1939-1945, preserved in the Central Archives of Modern Records (AAN) in Warsaw, in the Ministry of Education complex from 1945-1966, and contemporary drawings of Ukrainian children, related to the war currently taking place in Ukraine, collected on the Mom, I See War portal. We aim to show that war always looks the same through the eyes of a child. Irrespective of place and time, it is a huge evil, and the child is always the victim of it. The similarity between historical and present-day drawings is striking. Children draw tanks, planes dropping bombs, fires, and explosions. They draw the injured and the dead, the ruined houses, the graves. They draw themselves and their family, they draw evacuation and escape. But they also draw hope and their dreams for the future. By putting images and words together in thematic groups: fighting, occupation, family, repression, resistance, destruction, victory-hope, we want to emphasise the fact of how similar the scenarios of the invading wars are. The time changes, the place changes, the child witnesses change, but the war is always the same:
It cannot hear nor see, still less feel.
J.J. Letria”
dr Dorota Sadowska
University of Warsaw
prof. Olha Kulinich
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
The exhibition will be available for the public in the Centre of Visual Art and Research (CVAR, 285 Ermou Street, 1017 Nicosia) between 13th and 17th September, 9:30-17:00.
More information about the project may be found here. The exhibition in Nicosia is organized by the Embassies of the Republic of Poland and Ukraine in the Republic of Cyprus.
Photos:
Central Archives of Modern Records (AAN) in Warsaw
Project „Mom, I See War/Мамо, я бачу війну”, Ukraine, Kiev
