Here we wish to introduce you to the contributions on SOLIDARITY!
The REstART Festival will start on 30/11 with the launch of all artworks (including the films) online: in this way, you will be able to enjoy the artworks and prepare to the virtual talks with the artists. Among others, we will launch the photo exhibition from Tempio Pausania Restorative City prepared by the students of different high schools in Tempio Pausania and the prisoners of the high security prison of Nuchis (Italy). We will also launch the photo exhibition “The Presence of the Void” (Israel/ Palestina) made by ten Palestinian and Israeli bereaved women seeking to photograph the presence of their lost loved ones, and to give voice to the absence. You will be able to meet some of them on 4/12, during the talk on the film “One day after peace”. Also on the theme of solidarity, we will launch the pre-recorded presentation on the potential of gift making within restorative justice by Clair Aldington (UK). You can talk to Clair and two more contributors on 1/12. On the same day, colleagues working a community building project in Central America will present the restorative-oriented board game "Journey to discover the other" (Italy-El Salvador). In solidarity with the movement, raising awareness about restorative justice, the Vermont Law School is hosting the art contest "Reimagining Justice", asking creative minds to submit images, photos and symbols on restorative justice. Finally, two artists proposed to present the results of self-portraits of prisoners in Brussels published in individual art books and two activists from Flanders will propose a slide show of the art projects with prisoners, victims and other citizens in Leuven (Belgium): these will be available online during REstART!
Clair Aldington is a creative and a restorative practitioner in the final year of her PhD at Northumbria University, UK. Her doctoral research examines the role of design, gifting and solidarity within restorative justice processes. Clair has worked as an artist and creative and restorative practitioner. Her presentation will include findings and handmade artefacts from her PhD, including a series of solidarity wrapping cloths, based on Japanese 'Furoshiki'. This will be an opportunity to explore creatively the potential role for gift making in engendering solidarities between participants in restorative justice processes.
Robi Damelin is the mother of an Israeli soldier who was shot by a Palestinian sniper (see the film “One day after peace”). Together with other Israeli and Palestinian parents who lived a similar experience because of the war between the two nations, she is part of the Parents Circle - Families Forum (PCFF). They proposed to exhibit the photo project “The Presence of the Void” made by ten Palestinian and Israeli bereaved women seeking to photograph the presence of their lost loved ones, and to give voice to the absence.
Laurent Quillet and Despina Psymarnou are two visual artists that will share with us the outcomes of an art project in the prison of Forest in Brussels. The artworks include portraits made by prisoners sharing their experience of COVID-19 lockdown and four beautiful books with their stories in a very innovative way. These artworks are exposed online during the week of the REstART Festival.
The Team delle Pratiche di Giustizia Riparativa of Sassari University coordinated the making of two different virtual photo exibitions to be exposed during the REstART Festival. One includes paintings, poems and short texts by prisoners of Nuchis and students from Tempio Pausania Restorative City narrating their restorative justice experience and their inner journey of transformation and new relationships. The other one comes from the social cooperative "Ut Unum Sint" in Nuoro and it includes photos from different art workshops bringing together prisoners, victims, students, families and the wider community.
"Reimagining Justice" is a restorative justice art show, following a contest that invited the restorative justice and art communities to consider how can we use the power of images to communicate the concept of restorative justice and the greater philosophical shift at work to a wider audience. The art show is hosted by the National Center on Restorative Justice at Vermont Law School. During REstART we met the winners of the art contest that gave birth to this show.
This board game, similar to the Game of the Goose, travelled from Italy to Central America to teach children about feelings, prejudice, fears, joy one walks towards the encounter with the other. Guido Bertagna's unique drawings trigger imagination, memory, critical thinking; they give the floor to unthinkable, and otherwise unspeakable, steps each one of us has to accomplish to reach out to others.
Thanks to the collaboration between the two Leuven prisons and three non-profit organisations in Flanders, a series of socially oriented artistic projects brought together free citizens and detainees through digital storytelling workshops, a theater performance with detainees and victims, and much more.
