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Guernica Youth – Use of Space as challenge for artists and youth alike by Hatto Fischer

        

         Nagasaki: "After the bomb"

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Introduction

Guernica Youth actions consist of children and youth painting together peace murals on a canvas having the same size as Picasso's Guernica, namely 7,8 x 3,5m. The use of such a space poses a huge challenge for every artist. All the more is it amazing with what ease children and youth deal with this challenge. Lessons in the use of space can be deduced out of that. Since the paintings of these murals are as well local actions which can encompass potentially many people, including the parents of the children and youth, they take on a character of their own. Whether active participants or passive observers, it demonstrates a collaborative learning process when it comes to sharing not only one large space but other resources like paints and also ideas. Crucial in this search for a commonality in the overall message of such a mural is that the whole turns out to be a surprise for everyone. It underlines that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Such an experience can prove to be decisive when it comes to negotiations about use of spaces in the community. Usually what takes place and defines the use of squares, playgrounds, parks, etc. depends upon which group dominates at the time. It is conceivable that parents want to shape the square during the day which is suitable as to what children need, but during the evening and night it can well be that semi gangs rule. Consequently this leads to conflicts about different uses as it expresses as well what sort of social order ought to prevail. It can lead to pitched battles between the families and the semi gangs with the former wishing to push out the drug taking addicts, so that their children can play safely, while the latter want to set their own rules. This has been the case with Exarchia square located in an area of Athens which has been dominated for years by anarchists who operate practically outside the system and according to their own laws.

Of interest is that close-by an opportunity was seized upon in 2009 to initiate another use of space. The movement got together and converted a former parking place into a park so as to compensate urban dwellers who lack in a city like Athens access to green spaces. The park consists of a children's corner and features plenty of trees which were all donated. It includes as well a gathering place which has become a new commons - an outcome of a new political attitude.

As Saskia Sassen points out only when people step out of the system, they take on an identity of their own and create a history because they have stories to tell (see Rethinking the Greek crisis by Saskia Sassen.)

Crucial in this search for a true narrative is that the commons reflect attempts to unlock the conflict between private and public claims on how to use space. Likewise peace murals created at local level can turn into community wide cultural actions to reflect what is happening in the world. The murals can convey messages of the community to the rest of the world. Also because the canvas is mobile, not a wall, it can empower all the more the imagination in other locations and facilitate empathy for others. In Malta, one such action took place in the community of Zabbar. Always such a mural brought about by such an action can mean initiating a search for spaces where the truth about the need for peace can be unfolded through dialogue.

 

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