The 8000 Paper Clips and One Skype Call project arises from an encounter between TED Fellow and renowned Israeli artist Raffael Lomas and the Come True Project. Lomas came upon an unique situation that immediately inspired him to develop a project when he found out that a group of young South Sudanese refugees, some born in Israel, were deported from Israel when South Sudan declared its independence in 2011. Within this context, the Come True Project (under the umbrella of the non-profit Become True organization) started to sponsor a program that consisted in bringing the deported children the opportunity to go back to school in South Sudan.
In his first trip to Uganda in 2014, he met a group of student refugees and all together built the sculpture resembling a house made of 8000 paperclips. The goal of this action was to create a method utilizing artistic and innovative tools to prove that creative and systems thinking approaches can make a positive impact in humanitarian efforts. The same sculpture travelled back to Israel, the country they were deported from, and was reassembled in Tel Aviv (2015), where a Skype call was scheduled between the children refugees in Uganda and their old teachers and friends from Israel.
The reenactment of the sculpture and the collaboration between the different agents involved, gave rise to the next step of the project: Raffael Lomas traveled again to Uganda in the beginning of 2016 to make a new collaboration happen: Lomas took a group of the Come True youth to Namatumba, a small town, where they volunteered with the community, helping to renovate the local school, teaching the Abuyudia hebrew and basic Jewish concepts and engaging in other social activities. Trough their knowledge and volunteering as teachers, they helped to bridge cultural gaps in epic proportions, an example that projects can evolve into a multi layer system with branches gasping for more light.
After returning from his second trip in Uganda and carrying with him all these experiences and complicities, Raffael Lomas got in touch with the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA), a nonprofit public charity based in San Diego (U.S) that lifts up refugee voices and builds leadership in communities to increase civic engagement and create an inclusive civil society.
Lomas believes that creativity brings boundless possibilities to create an impact on humanity by working with people or organizations in their community to affect change. Reason whereby he got to another step of the project, this time happening in San Diego.
By developing a pluralized front in collaboration with PANA, a group of students of the New School for Architecture, New Media and Design (San Diego) and the Leichtag Foundation, a Foundation that stimulates social entrepreneurship in coastal North San Diego County and Jerusalem, an exhibition will be opened the August 4th in the New American Museum of San Diego, with the aim to emphasize the barriers that have been broken during the project in its entirety.
Raffael Lomas will bring the sculpture and all the efforts of the numerous refugees involved in his project to San Diego; with him, the students of the New School along with a group of refugees from PANA, Olga Sureda as the Artistic Director of the project, and with the support of Leichtag Foundation, will make the latest chapter of the ongoing project come true. The short documentary 8000 Paper Clips and One Skype Call, by Israeli photographer Nitzan Tal, portrays the whole process of this project.
Within this framework, we can affirm that Art is a practical tool to be used to bring about social change. It bridges the gap between the human emotional experience and the force which drives one to act. The exhibition will run as a multi-medium guide to express the story of the project and a glimpse into the life of a refugee’s life.
From an art world outsider, it would be easy to dismiss art as excessive, as unnecessary, a waste of money and resources when compared with the destitution, ills and social injustices ever-present around the world. Here it is missing the point of art: Art exposes and helps resolve issues of social justice. Thus, as a cultural tool, art helps humanize and actualize the emotions, grievances, and fears of those who may not have another place to voice concerns. Art shocks and inspires us to action. What art depicts can illicit a visceral, almost cellular, reaction.
Nowadays, many artists are deeply committed to making work that addresses pressing social issues and changes the way we perceive the world. We find different artistic movements where 8000 paperclip’s project could have a place. For instance, Artivism (artist + activism), where artists use their artistic talents to fight and struggle against injustice and oppression—by any medium necessary (artists like Ai Weiwei, Banksy or Julio Salgado among many others); or Arte Útil, formulated by well-known Cuban artist Tania Bruguera, roughly translated into English as 'useful art' but going further suggesting art as a tool or device, drawing on artistic thinking to imagine, create and implement tactics that change how we act in society.
While some artists use traditional forms of visual, literary, or performing arts to make work that comments on, responds to, or advocates for the need for change, others are exploring new forms of “social practice” that engages communities in an interactive exchange. In the latter category, an artwork might take the form of a store, a garden, a meal, a website, a street performance, a story exchange or, in this case, a house made of paperclips. Socially engaged art can ignite outrage demanding for change, and providing a platform for reflection, building community and collaboration.
Raffael Lomas does not close his eyes neither leads a revolution, but rather assumes an ethical responsibility through his work. With 8000Paperclip’s project, he promotes other ways of participation and social transformation, by creating new approaches of relations between art, society and life and by proposing artistic thinking to challenge the field within which it operates
.
Olga Sureda Guasch
Artistic Director
In his first trip to Uganda in 2014, he met a group of student refugees and all together built the sculpture resembling a house made of 8000 paperclips. The goal of this action was to create a method utilizing artistic and innovative tools to prove that creative and systems thinking approaches can make a positive impact in humanitarian efforts. The same sculpture travelled back to Israel, the country they were deported from, and was reassembled in Tel Aviv (2015), where a Skype call was scheduled between the children refugees in Uganda and their old teachers and friends from Israel.
The reenactment of the sculpture and the collaboration between the different agents involved, gave rise to the next step of the project: Raffael Lomas traveled again to Uganda in the beginning of 2016 to make a new collaboration happen: Lomas took a group of the Come True youth to Namatumba, a small town, where they volunteered with the community, helping to renovate the local school, teaching the Abuyudia hebrew and basic Jewish concepts and engaging in other social activities. Trough their knowledge and volunteering as teachers, they helped to bridge cultural gaps in epic proportions, an example that projects can evolve into a multi layer system with branches gasping for more light.
After returning from his second trip in Uganda and carrying with him all these experiences and complicities, Raffael Lomas got in touch with the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA), a nonprofit public charity based in San Diego (U.S) that lifts up refugee voices and builds leadership in communities to increase civic engagement and create an inclusive civil society.
Lomas believes that creativity brings boundless possibilities to create an impact on humanity by working with people or organizations in their community to affect change. Reason whereby he got to another step of the project, this time happening in San Diego.
By developing a pluralized front in collaboration with PANA, a group of students of the New School for Architecture, New Media and Design (San Diego) and the Leichtag Foundation, a Foundation that stimulates social entrepreneurship in coastal North San Diego County and Jerusalem, an exhibition will be opened the August 4th in the New American Museum of San Diego, with the aim to emphasize the barriers that have been broken during the project in its entirety.
Raffael Lomas will bring the sculpture and all the efforts of the numerous refugees involved in his project to San Diego; with him, the students of the New School along with a group of refugees from PANA, Olga Sureda as the Artistic Director of the project, and with the support of Leichtag Foundation, will make the latest chapter of the ongoing project come true. The short documentary 8000 Paper Clips and One Skype Call, by Israeli photographer Nitzan Tal, portrays the whole process of this project.
Within this framework, we can affirm that Art is a practical tool to be used to bring about social change. It bridges the gap between the human emotional experience and the force which drives one to act. The exhibition will run as a multi-medium guide to express the story of the project and a glimpse into the life of a refugee’s life.
From an art world outsider, it would be easy to dismiss art as excessive, as unnecessary, a waste of money and resources when compared with the destitution, ills and social injustices ever-present around the world. Here it is missing the point of art: Art exposes and helps resolve issues of social justice. Thus, as a cultural tool, art helps humanize and actualize the emotions, grievances, and fears of those who may not have another place to voice concerns. Art shocks and inspires us to action. What art depicts can illicit a visceral, almost cellular, reaction.
Nowadays, many artists are deeply committed to making work that addresses pressing social issues and changes the way we perceive the world. We find different artistic movements where 8000 paperclip’s project could have a place. For instance, Artivism (artist + activism), where artists use their artistic talents to fight and struggle against injustice and oppression—by any medium necessary (artists like Ai Weiwei, Banksy or Julio Salgado among many others); or Arte Útil, formulated by well-known Cuban artist Tania Bruguera, roughly translated into English as 'useful art' but going further suggesting art as a tool or device, drawing on artistic thinking to imagine, create and implement tactics that change how we act in society.
While some artists use traditional forms of visual, literary, or performing arts to make work that comments on, responds to, or advocates for the need for change, others are exploring new forms of “social practice” that engages communities in an interactive exchange. In the latter category, an artwork might take the form of a store, a garden, a meal, a website, a street performance, a story exchange or, in this case, a house made of paperclips. Socially engaged art can ignite outrage demanding for change, and providing a platform for reflection, building community and collaboration.
Raffael Lomas does not close his eyes neither leads a revolution, but rather assumes an ethical responsibility through his work. With 8000Paperclip’s project, he promotes other ways of participation and social transformation, by creating new approaches of relations between art, society and life and by proposing artistic thinking to challenge the field within which it operates
.
Olga Sureda Guasch
Artistic Director
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by Nitsan Tal |
Under Construction
For More Info Please contact
Artistic Director – Olga Sureda Guasch
osuredaguasch@gmail.com
For More Info Please contact
Artistic Director – Olga Sureda Guasch
osuredaguasch@gmail.com