30 July 2004

Tegucigalpa, Honduras: A two-week art campaign on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that saw 50 artists from Honduras and around the world volunteer their talent has ended today in the country’s capital city.

Since 15 July, the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme’s project “Art for All” has transformed Tegucigalpa’s empty walls and open spaces into a permanent exposition of some 50 murals and sculptures highlighting the eight MDGs.

UN Volunteer Vanessa Weisenfeld says the fact that the art is in public spaces and not in a museum demonstrates the project’s mandate. “Only a small elite [in Honduras] have access to art and culture. The general public lacks opportunities to experience and appreciate the arts,” she says. “This event will inspire people to participate in similar activities by demonstrating the possibilities of volunteerism.”

The artists, hailing from such countries as Argentina, Australia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, England, France, Italy, Sweden and the United States, spent 12 days out in the city’s streets sharing their talent and exchanging ideas with local children, other artists and the public at large. While they had free rein in the material they could use, their work had to represent the MDGs in some shape or form.

Honduran artist Fausto Tabora used stone and metal to depict Goal 3 – achieving gender equality and empowering women. His stone sculpture of a female body morphed into a bull with her legs wrapped in chains, he says, illustrates that while the two genders are not profoundly different, women are oppressed, especially in his country. Yet, he says it is clear she is emerging from the rock, so hope is present.

Argentinean sculptor Eugenia Bekeris says her piece Anti-Wall, which is meant to unite rather than divide people, displays the hands and signatures of people she asked to help out. She says it embodies all of the goals, as it represents the need to reconstruct societies to include all those people who do not enjoy human rights, live in poverty, lack an education or live outside of the “system”.

Peter Claesson, the UNV Programme Officer for Honduras, says “Art for All” also represents the power of private sector partnership. He says private companies and local businesses donated meals, hotel rooms and materials to support the artists in their endeavours. “The project has concrete results that donors will see daily throughout the city. UNV hopes this will inspire the private sector to become more devoted to investing in development in the future.”