((PKG)) REFUGEE ART
((Banner: Refugee as Subject))
((Reporter/Camera: Mike O’Sullivan))
((Adapted by: Bronwyn Benito))
((Additional Video Courtesy: Achilleas Souras))
((Map: Los Angeles, California))
((Banner: 17 year old artist, Achilleas Souras has a traveling art exhibit called SOS – Save Our Souls))
((ACHILLEAS SOURAS, ARTIST, BARCELONA, SPAIN))
The project isn’t really meant to influence somebody’s point of view. It’s really just meant to make somebody feel more inspired to explore more about the crisis, like I did.
((ACHILLEAS SOURAS, ARTIST, BARCELONA, SPAIN))
The idea came at school. We’d been looking at the refugee crisis as a topic, so, I kind of wanted to combine making a big project and the refugee crisis into one.
((ACHILLEAS SOURAS, ARTIST, BARCELONA, SPAIN))
It culminated in me reaching out to get actual life jackets from Lesbos in Greece, where many migrants would arrive. Life jackets create an environmental problem on the shores, and housing is a human right. So, those two factors amalgamated into the main premise of the project.
((ACHILLEAS SOURAS, ARTIST, BARCELONA, SPAIN))
Initially, everybody would draw on them or make something out of them, but then when I finally got them, I also decided to make a shelter out of them, something more powerful, because when I touched them, I realized that each one of these life jackets represented a human life, and it also had the smell of the sea, so it just made it much more impactful than I thought initially.
((ACHILLEAS SOURAS, ARTIST, BARCELONA, SPAIN))
I realized that there were many parallels between an actual igloo and the igloo that I had made. Real igloos tend to be in the northern part of the world where there’s colder climates, and they’re made out of the only other possible surrounding which is ice. And in this case, this igloo was made out of the only possible surrounding that the people would have. And then, it’s also the idea that it managed to take two very objective strands out of the very complex and controversial refugee crisis and make something objective and impactful out of it that people can’t really disagree with, to serve as an impetus rather than as something to sway somebody’s point of view.
