New exhibition of Ukrainian and Polish children's war drawings opens at Riigikogu
This Wednesday (May 8), a new exhibition opened at the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) containing drawings of war created by Polish children in 1946 and Ukrainian children in the modern day. The works included in "Mum, I Don't Want War" were selected from the world's first digital archive dedicated to how children experience war.
At the exhibition's opening, Riigikogu Speaker Lauri Hussar (Eesti 200) said that the depiction of war in children's pictures, through their eyes, brought a deep sadness to his soul.
"Wherever a war takes place, it is the children who suffer the most from it. They will feel the trauma of war for the rest of their lives and pass it on to the next generations," said Hussar.
Hussar emphasized that when looking at these pictures, we should feel with all our souls the responsibility we have as adults to prevent wars or to end them as soon as possible.
The exhibition includes drawings made by Polish children from 1946, reflecting their experiences of the Second World War and the German occupation in 1939–1945. The images were preserved between 1945 to 1966 in the Polish State Archives in Warsaw.
Next to them, are drawings created by Ukrainian children in the modern day, which depict the war that is currently taking place in their home country. The pictures were collected via the online portal "Mom, I See War," which is the world's first digital art archive dedicated to how children experience war, built on the blockchain.
The project was initiated by the first collection of 14,000 Ukrainian children's drawings and later expanded to include art made by children from across the globe.
The organizers of the exhibition aim to show that through the eyes of a child, war always looks the same. Regardless of the place or time, war is a great evil, and the child is always a victim. The similarity between the historical and contemporary drawings is remarkable. Children draw tanks, planes dropping bombs, fires and explosions. They draw the wounded and the dead, ruined houses, graves. They draw themselves and their families, they draw evacuation and escape. But they also draw pictures of hope and of their dreams for the future.
The exhibition will be open until June 14, and can be visited on weekdays between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Visitors are required to present valid ID in order to gain entry to Toompea Castle.
More information about the joint Polish and Ukraine online archival project "Mom, I Don't Want War" can be found here.
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Editor: Michael Cole
