La Isla Hundida (the sunken island) an Art Project for Children about the Climatic Change, Arrives to CCE in Miami
Presented by CCEMiami and created by Spanish artist Javier Velasco and curator Anne-Marie Melster in collaboration with ARTPORT_making waves, the project La Isla Hundida features several theorical and hands on workshops lo create awareness in children on the issue of climate change and environmental issues. The workshops will be presented in schools throughout Miami Dade (MAST Academy, Coral Way K-8, and the afterschool program "My Gang Alternative“) as well as in CCEMiami’s headquarters. The opening of the exhibition of La Isla Hundida at CCEMiami include a public performance that consist of sinking the created islands. After January 22 it will shows the works created by the children and the photographic and video material documenting all the workshops and performances which took place so far internationally. Its aim is to reflect the engagement of children all over the planet and the effectiveness and interconnection of this kind of art & educational activities.
The children creates a little cutout island of a recycled newspaper page and a natural glue made from flour and water. Animated videos, graphic explanations and facts & figures explained the steps and the subject in a playful and comprehensible way. By creating their own island, design it in their individual and sustainable way, the children reflectd on environmental issues in a direct way. They feel more attached to something they built with their own hands and identify themselves better with people directly afflicted by climate change effects. The artistic process shows to the children that they are able to do something extremely beautiful and create environmental awareness by using playful and simple instruments.
Concluding the workshop, the children will “drown” their islands in a water container. This symbolical mass drowning of thousands of little islands is a comment on the problem of rising sea levels, a direct consequence of climate change. During COP16, La Isla Hundida worked with the government of the Maldives, who are particularly afflicted by this problem.
La Isla Hundida strives to engage children by discovering their own creativity, to make them feel empowered and interconnected in their quest for solutions to the problem. Children are the citizens of tomorrow and they will be the housekeepers of this planet, therefore they are the ones who will take care about a positive change. And art is a powerful instrument to sensitize people about environmental issues, as Dr. Rajeendra Pachauri, Director of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) pronounced during a conference he held at COP16.
This workshop and performance, which happened for the first time parallel to the largely inaccessible high-level discussions at COP16, the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun in December 2010, reached the general public and the conference participants, and, far beyond Cancun, engages citizens of the world. In Cancun and the area of the Riviera Maya the artist and the curator worked with approximately 300 children of various schools and children which they gathered in public spaces.
Starting January 24, there are guided tours of the CCEMiami exhibition. To schedule a visit, call 305.448.9677. The exhibition will be opened until February 11th (Monday to Friday, 10 am to 5 pm.)
You can also be part of La isla hundida and get more information, by visiting their Website www.laislahundida.org, and uploading images of your own creations from anywhere in the World.
Activities at the Cultural Center of Spain are sponsored by the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation to the Development (AECID), Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.
