The intimate exhibition features the personal stories of 20 refugees who are rebuilding their lives in Greece. In addition to examining their stories, the show also looks ahead into the future and encourages migrants to hone their creativity.
An exhibition entitled "Face Forward… Into My Home" opened its doors in Athens, Greece. The show hopes to tell the unique stories of 20 refugees who are rebuilding their life in Greece after being forced to leave their homes.
The exhibition aims to raise awareness of the gravity of the ongoing migrant crisis, as Greece continues to face the continuing influx of migrants into the country. As refugee camps on the Eastern Aegean islands are beginning to overflow with the onset of winter the Greek government keeps struggling to cope with a backlog of thousands of asylum applications.
The show is put together by the EMST and the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and
is organized in three phases: There are storytelling workshops, photographic portraits, and an exhibition involving personal narratives alongside portraits.
'A channel of communication'
The National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) launched the special project in order to highlight thestories of the people behind the headlines of the refugee crisis. Instead of only telling the stories of the 20 refugees involved in the project the exhibition laos features "experimental workshops" with the refugees, presenting their stories about how war and civil strife in their homelands had forced them to flee to Greece.
EMST director Katerina Koskina described the exhibition as "a
channel of communication" between the art world at the realities of the refugee crisis.
"This is a very important event that is not purely artistic but is, above all, human. It has to do with how people relate to each other. We gave participants the opportunity to talk freely about their adventure, their journey, and their experiences. They talk about what has happened to them, and how they want to live in the future."
Looking forward
The 20 refugees participating in the exhibition are supported through the ESTIA Emergency Assistance Program for Housing and Integration, which is implemented by the
UNHCR and funded by the European Commission.
UNHCR chief of staff, Phillip Leklerk, the head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, explained that for him, the project was designed to "show the creativity of refugees."
"We should not only talk about their past and their difficulties, but also about the present and the future of these people," Leklerk added.
The exhibition runs until January 31, 2018.