Projects tagged "Violence & War"

Lysistrata
Practitioner:
Aristophanes
Date:
Nov 30 0410
Lysistrata, by Aristophanes, was first performed in Athens in 411 BC. The play, while fictional, can be read as an early example of creative activism. It is about Lysistrata's quest to end the war between Athens and Sparta. She gathers the women of Athens and makes them swear an oath to deny their lovers and husband sex until they end the war.
Thousands of Ghanaians protest controversial military deal with U.S.
Practitioner:
public
Date:
Mar 28 2018
Thousands of people protested in Ghana’s capital Accra on Wednesday against the expansion of its defence cooperation with the United States, in a rare public display of opposition to the growing foreign military presence in West Africa. Demonstrators blowing vuvuzelas and beating drums filled Accra’s business district, holding placards criticising a new deal with Washington that they say threatens Ghana’s sovereignty.
Unforgotten Campaign
Practitioner:
Unforgotten Campaign
Date:
Apr 27 2015
Blair Holt was shot and killed while he shielded another classmate from the bullets a gunman sprayed on a CTA bus in Chicago in 2007. His father is a police officer and his mother is a fire department chief, and that’s what they had taught him to do.
Ferdinand the Bull
Practitioner:
Munro Leaf & Robert Lawson
Date:
Jan 1 1936
On a damp and rainy Sunday in October of 1935, Munro Leaf sat down to write a story. He had been eager to work with his friend – the illustrator Robert Lawson – for some time and so he decided to pen a book which he felt might suit the illustrator’s skills. Lawson was a master at drawing animals but horses, dogs, cats, rabbits and mice had all been done a thousand times already.
And Counting...
Practitioner:
Wafaa Bilal
Date:
Mar 9 2010
Wafaa Bilal’s brother, Haji, was killed by a missile at a checkpoint in their hometown of Kufa, Iraq in 2004. Bilal feels the pain of both American and Iraqi families who have lost loved ones in the war, but the deaths of Iraqis like his brother are largely invisible to the American public.
Afghan Grafitti artist Malina Suliman Refuses to Back Down
Practitioner:
Malina Suliman
Date:
Mar 8 2013
After Afghan artist Malina Suliman's father suffered a brutal attack in their hometown of Kandahar, the Suliman family fled to Mumbai, where they plan on staying until the end of March. Malina is a 23 year-old grafitti artist whose work can be seen throughout Kandahar, including a self-portrait of a skeleton in a burqah that provoked threats from local Taliban. The Suliman family suspects the attack on Mr.
Sneaking the Jews out of Denmark
Practitioner:
Denmark
Date:
Sep 15 1943
In September 1943, the Nazis prepared for the deportation of all Danish Jews to the concentration camps and death. But Georg Duckwitz, a German diplomat with a conscience, deliberately leaked the plans for the roundup, which was due to begin on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Armed with the information from Duckwitz, Danes swung into action.
Demonstrators hold “flower strikes” across the restive country
Practitioner:
Demonstrators in Myanmar
Date:
Apr 2 2021
Opponents of military rule in Myanmar have marched, observed "flower strikes" and sought alternative ways to communicate after most users were cut off from the internet, undaunted by the bloody suppression of protests during the past two months.
I Paint, I Protest: Mary Perry Stone
Practitioner:
video
Date:
Dec 26 2016
Video of Mary Perry Stone's social protest art created in the 1960s . Civil Rights, and the Vietnam War were her subjects. Mary never stopped being an activist and a few of her later works are also in the video.
Soviet Army Monument - REDUX
Practitioner:
various activists
Date:
Feb 23 2014
Since the beginning of Bulgaria's transition to democracy, the monument’s meaning and future has been the subject of heated debates. Opponents to the monument aren’t happy about the presence of such a dominating foreign army monument in the country that is situated higher and more central than national symbols. In recent years, the monument has turned into a canvas for anonymous political statements on multiple occasions.
Bread and Puppet Theater Founder Peter Schumann on 50 Years of Art and Resistance
Practitioner:
Bread and Puppet
Date:
Dec 26 2013
This year marks the 50th anniversary of one of this country’s most beloved theater companies. Founded in New York City in 1963, the Bread and Puppet Theater’s first productions ranged from puppet shows for children to pieces opposing poor housing conditions. The group’s processions, involving monstrous puppets, some about 20 feet high, became a fixture of protests against the Vietnam War. "We don’t have playwrights in the theater.
A Night Of Philosophy And Ideas
Practitioner:
various
Date:
Jan 27 2018
"A Night of Philosophy and Ideas is a thinker’s lollapalooza. The free, 12-hour weekend lyceum at the Brooklyn Public Library includes spirited debate, live music, theater, performance art pieces, and film screenings. At any given hour, five or six different events will be taking place simultaneously. Visitors are encouraged to come and go as the spirit moves them.
Joey Skaggs and Santa’s Missile Tow
Practitioner:
Joey Skaggs
Date:
Nov 13 2012
On November 13, 2012, Joey Skaggs dressed up as Santa Claus and rode a three-wheeler to the United Nations in New York, NY. Skaggs’ bike was equipped with a fake mobile rocket launcher and a sign that read “ Peace on earth, or else!” A group of elves also accompanied Santa to the UN, and they alternated between handing out green toy soldiers to bystanders and singing their altered version of Jingle Bells, as seen below:
THE SLAVE SERIES: QUILTS BY GWENDOLYN A. MAGEE
Practitioner:
GWENDOLYN A. MAGEE
Date:
Apr 24 2014
The image is stark. And shocking. A black man, his ankles shackled, his head hanging away from the viewer, stands in relief on a field of white. Chains stretching to the image's borders on the left and right pull his arms taut. Fourteen crimson marks crosshatch his back. Within the dark fabric that frames "86 Lashes to Go," a small rectangle is labeled simply "salt."
Why Is Iran’s Regime So Afraid of This Song?
Practitioner:
Shervin Hajipour
Date:
Sep 27 2022
“Baraye,” the anthem of Iran’s “Woman, Life, Liberty” protest movement—a song woven together entirely from a Twitter hashtag trend in which Iranians express their investment in the current protests—continues to unite Iranians in their opposition to the Islamic Republic several weeks after it was first released online.
Grandmas resignifying public space
Practitioner:
Corpovisionarios por Colombia, Health Ministry of Colombia, OIM
Date:
May 6 2014
This project consisted of an articulation between research, public policy and art. Corpovisionarios por Colombia was implementing a social change initiative in one of the poorest and most violents neighborhoods in Cali, Colombia. The demographic information showed that the most implicated population in the violence and murder cases were young men. They informed their masculinity through ideas of territory and its violent protection.
Ai Weiwei poses as drowned Syrian infant refugee in 'haunting' photo
Practitioner:
Ai Wei Wei
Date:
Feb 1 2016
Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has recreated the image of drowned infant Alan Kurdi that in 2015 became the defining symbol of the plight of Syria’s refugees. For the recreation, Ai lay on a pebbled beach on the Greek island of Lesbos. His pose was similar to that of Kurdi’s lifeless body, which washed up on a beach near the Turkish town of Bodrum and was captured in a September 2015 photo.
Healing Torture Through Art
Practitioner:
Najah al-Bukai
Date:
Feb 1 2018
Najah al-Bukai cannot forget. As an accomplished artist in Syria before the war, Mr. Bukai had long thought his photographic memory was his greatest asset, allowing him to recreate scenes on his sketch pads and canvases days, months and even years after he witnessed them. But now, after he has survived two stretches in the Syrian government’s notorious detention centers, his sharp memories only serve to haunt him.
Just Be - Challenging perceptions & changing attitudes on forced migration
Practitioner:
Participants of the Creativity and Change course Cork City
Date:
Apr 13 2017
The participants are taking part in a one week empathy to action training in Cork.
Secret Anti-Abuse Advertisement
Practitioner:
Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk Foundation
Date:
May 12 2013
In an effort to provide abused children with a safe way to reach out for help, a Spanish organization called the Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk Foundation, or ANAR for short, created an ad that displays a different message for adults and children at the same time.
Picha Mtaani
Practitioner:
Boniface Mwangi
Date:
Dec 7 2009
On 7th December 2009, “Picha Mtaani” was launched at a colorful ceremony in Nairobi. “Picha Mtaani” in partnership with UNDP Kenya, was an initiative that seeks to create a platform for peace building, national healing and cohesion through street picture galleries, hosted dialogues and repertoire of the reflections and discussions.
The Atone Project: Remembering the Ahmadis
Practitioner:
Joseph DeLappe
Date:
Sep 17 2021
The Atone Project: Remembering the Ahmadis https://atoneproject.tumblr.com/ An artistic act of critical remembrance at the 9/11 Memorial Plaza, NYC.
Protest against Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
Practitioner:
Sarah Constantin
Date:
Jan 28 2016
A Femen activist, Sarah Constantin, is hanged from a noose-like rope from a Paris bridge to call attention to the large number of executions in Iran as she stages a protest against visiting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Paris, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016. A near-naked woman hanging from a noose-like rope from a Paris bridge has sent a message to visiting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
Wearable Shelter for Syrian Refugees
Practitioner:
HuffPost Lifestyle
Date:
Feb 19 2016
UK design students focusing on the use of design that moves beyond exclusivity, wealth, entitlement, and privilege, have created a coat that is also a shelter. The functional pocketed coat that converts into a tent and a sleeping bag, is intended for Syrian refugees. The students under the guidance of Dr.
No Humans Involved: After Sylvia Wynter
Practitioner:
Alexandra Bell
Date:
Dec 1 2018
In this series featured in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, artist Alexandra Bell edited headline pages from the New York Daily News in 1989 concerning the case of the Central Park 5. Through redaction, highlighting, and censoring, Bell shows how the teens accused of this crime were painted as a pack of animals by the media.

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