About twenty inhabitants of Bangalore and Bijapur shanty towns, mostly young women between 20 and 30, took part in a popular expression workshop organized by Fedina and Frères des Hommes during ten days in July 2008. Everyday engaged in defending their rights and to the struggle against poverty, the inhabitants used their experiences to create works of art. German Vidal, an artist who led the workshops, helped the participants in order to make their expression easier and to capture the civic energy of these artists for a day.
A workshop for original popular expression
The participants could express the social violence that they experience daily : child labor, early pregnancies, discrimination against women and dalits, lack of drinking water, malnutrition and health problems. They graphically expressed the strength of their non-violent commitments in the struggle against poverty.
Collages creating during the workshop of July, 2008
As the inhabitants were not used to graphical techniques, German Vidal taught them to grasp new ways of expression : painting, drawing, cutting out, collage, calligraphy… They added personal decoration (fabric, shellfish) and created works born from collective thinking. In 10 days, they achieved more than 150 high impact pieces.
Some of these works were printed on plastic sheets and exposed in Bangalore streets : the participants of the workshops appealed the passersby to describe the situations they have to cope with.
Since then, the works have been regularly exposed and convey to a large public a message of strength in non-violent commitments.
With this form of popular expression, Frères des Hommes offers new methods of sharing experiences of non-violent commitments as a means of resistance to poverty and precariousness.
The workshops in Bangladesh are made possible through the efforts of:
The inhabitants of Bangalore and Bijapur shanty towns
In India, the poorest inhabitants, who often come from the country because they cannot provide their families with food anymore, gather in shanty towns. Infrastructure (electricity, drinking water, wastewater treatment…) and services (education, health…) are very poor, almost inexistent, and families live very harsh lives. Frères des Hommes and Fedina help them improve their living conditions and give a better future to their children.
German Vidal
The artist German Vidal helps people speak by showing them how to express their situations graphically. People can share their feelings through drawing, painting and collage. He uses a graphical language we are all of us familiar with, that of propaganda, publicity, signalling, and also creates informative documents that convey the message of the voiceless and that aim to defend the rights of those most at risk.
Fedina
Fedina was created in 1983 in Bangalore, Karnataka, and gives the most oppressed populations the means to defend their rights and to be active in their development. This foundation brings support to marginalized people, minorities, dalits, tribal people and workers at risk. 3 700 base groups, which represents 114 000 people, are engaged in the foundation’s activities.
