Faces, text and voices affirm human rights
More than half a century after the 1948 adoption of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the planet, more than ever, still faces violence, prejudice and hunger.
Two art exhibits at the Korea Cultural Foundation, “etre ― The Face of Human Rights” and “Renato Jordan: Human Rights on 10 Panels,” hope to bring human rights to the forefront of people’s minds in a way that politics cannot.
“Where words fail, maybe paintings and photographs can facilitate a better understanding of human rights,” said Christian Hauswirth, the Swiss ambassador to Korea.
“etre ― The Face of Human Rights” is a collection of 39 photos on 13 triptychs. Each triptych, which is an assembly of three panels, addresses a basic human rights issues. One shows photos of a skeletal Somalian woman breast-feeding her tiny child (by Chris Steele-Perkins, 1992) and a French woman holding a Champagne glass and smoking a cigarette (Martin Parr, 2001). A headline reads “The Right to Health ― Must a woman’s life in some African countries be so much shorter than in Western Europe?”
“The umbrella idea is to make an exhibition covering all aspects of human rights starting with the charter of human rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” said Roland Viotti, the culture and commerce counsellor at the Swiss Embassy.
“I wanted to express the fact that even though we see and hear the declaration all the time, almost nobody really understands the full meaning behind the articles. We are all confused,” said Mr. Jordan. “The human rights declaration is not a law. Therefore it is not forcefully binding. Although these 30 articles are a crucial part of how we should live, a number of the 129 countries which signed this declaration are not abiding by the statements.”
by Cho Jae-un [jainnie@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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