Page 24 - Child Art Magazine Transformative Experiences

1999WCF

Alejandro Goldzycher

Art to Literature

I was only nine years old when I took part in the 1st World However, at the same time I feel it may sometimes
Children’s Festival, which directly shaped my creative be preferable not to suggest a finished idea of that
development and my understanding of the role of art in hypothetical state, as it can be a tricky exercise to
my own life as well as in today’s society in general. It was perform. The calamities of the last century, which were
within its context that I began to recognize the institutional often caused or justified in the name of great ideals, are
dimension of art and to feel the sense of responsibility still fresh in our memories, or at least they should be so.
that emanates from it. This experience also strengthened Nevertheless, I would find it hard not to mention empathy,
my conviction that art does not need to be ‘political’ in an solidarity, education,
obvious and naïvely moralistic way to have a transforming equal opportunities, and
effect on reality. tolerance as essential
keys towards a better
The capacity to imagine possible worlds through world, although I am
art (even, if not especially, the most ‘fantastic’ ones) aware that even such
undoubtedly carries with it the power to conceive reality concepts should be
in unconventional ways, along with the prospect of called upon with
recreating this same gesture outside the specific frame of a certain caution.
artistic creation. In this way, art also reinforces our sense For example,
of being actors in a world that may sometimes seem there are some
too far away and dehumanized to even try to intervene actions or
in it. It makes us reassess the very idea of possibility situations (such
while inviting us to find and build other ways of living as injustice,
in community, maybe even more so when each one’s discrimination,
individuality is more strongly implicated in the creative or plain violence
process. The fact that children from all the world are against those
expressly invited to contemplate these horizons, to who cannot
channel their creative energy and their most personal
interests within a frame of international collaborative
work, is, I believe, one of ICAF’s key contributions, for
which we should be immensely grateful.

When asked about my dream for the world, I have the
impulse to express it in terms of an imagined utopia.
“

You should not give in to the

pressure to be ‘normal’, nor

pressure others to be so.”

22 ChildArt January -March 2017