Discussion with youth of Gent about their Kids' Guernica experience

Group of students at Kids' Guernica conference in the University of Gent

Introduction

Initial theme when introducing Kids' Guernica to Gent and especially to Manuel Gonzales was the extent to which 'violence in cities' is a topic in Gent. Even though surprisingly Gent does not experience as much violence compared to other Belgium cities, the police of Gent was ready to sponsor this action, as there prevailed a wish to enter a dialogue with children and youth. One interesting question prompted this: how is the police perceived? In reality, the work of the police faces many complex issues and in many cases after being called to intervene, these police officers need counselling as the impact of what they experience not always possible to be taken by one person alone. Traumas exist thus on both sides and it may be best to talk about them openly.

Kids' Guernica does not merely look at conflicts resulting in violence and affecting cities especially when war breaks out, but also what is entailed in dialogues between children from cities and children living in rural countryside. This was exemplified, for example. by the Nepal peace mural.

This is why the Kids' Guernica action in Gent 2010 is so important. The Police of Gent showed interest to engage itself in a dialogue with children and youth. Children do perceive the police as the men with a gun as indicated in the mural painted by the smaller children!

It is said that more such actions are needed, in order to avert violence within cities and between various members of groups with distinct cultural identities. West Side Story depicted that already a long time ago but Europe. Since then, many cities but equally rural areas face a growing readiness to violence. It seems as if life is no longer respected but used in ever aggressive games as raw material, as the last equally most easiest thing to lose, in order to trap the other in 'false conflicts' (Jad Salman) and even worse to coerce the youth and among them especially some very vulnerable individuals into submissive roles. As a result social institutions (families, schools, juvenile courts) are increasingly overburdened as they cannot come to terms anymore with such a youth.

The Kids' Guernica action in Martinique undertaken by Savina Tarsitano showed, however, those which cannot to be reached by normal cultural policy tools, they can be brought into communication by painting together such a mural.

Does it hold as well in Gent and in Belgium as the case in Greece or nowadays even in Egypt and Tunisia that the youth of today feel their future is being blocked by a society having grown complacent and even corrupt? The youth rejects this false path of development.

Moreover, the youth is equally agonized by the early death of their fellow friends due to cancer and other illnesses ready to crush the spirit of the youth. Health issues are linked to diet, doing sports but also how the sleep rhythm is defined since many more stay up all night to communicate on facebook with others out of a need to communicate when in fact there are very few around or close by to give some comforting words.

There is a particular growing problem when the youth, but not only they feel rejected and end up, therefore, isolated in society. Most of the time they are increasingly burdened by the negative image that they are losers. The poet Enzensberger has written about these 'radical losers' who would one day suddenly emerge out of silence and open up a shooting spree as the case in Arizona, USA January 2011 but also what took place in Finnish or German schools.

Perception of the police

There was a second action in Gent done by smaller children under the coordination of Marianne Stevens. It depicted the police man as holding a gun to underline how children perceive the police.

Mural done by small children with Marianne Stevens, coordinator Gent 2010

Gent as place of refuge

There are many kinds of journeys, one of them depicted by this watch tower in the mural. It was painted by a boy who had to flee civil war in Sierra Leone and who came all alone to Gent. His mother followed only two years later. Marianne Stevens reaccounted that when she asked him if he did not wish to put something beside the two watch towers he had drawn, he said: "no". The towers remind of Michel Foucault's "observance and punishment" as part of the jail system but also of closed borders.

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Discussion with youth of Gent about their Kids' Guernica experience