Exhibiting art in a subway station.

Arthur Laux (age 8) Germany

Mama

   You are my eye
   You are my wardrobe
   You are my glass
   You are my eye
   Unforgettable wings
   Your Arthur

ICAF invited children from all over the world to create artworks depicting their own utopias. After receiving more than 1000 submissions, ICAF and the famous Italian artist Enzo Mari created two distinct exhibitions to display the most powerful and creative pieces.

One exhibit is at the Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany. Read more about this installation in this issue on pages 10-11.

The second exhibit is by Enzo Mari--he exhibited his selections of the children's utopias at the Odeonplatz subway station in downtown Munich. Some of the pieces can be seen on these pages. When asked to interpret some of the children's art, Mr. Mari made many interesting observations. Let's have a look at what he said!

When we think about "utopia"--a perfect place, which does not exist--it makes us think about our world. We start to look around and see what things are plentiful (there is a lot of it), and what things many people still don't have.

Often people with lots of money, as well as those who want power, live very isolated from other people. They live in a technological and automated world--a "Cyborg-World"--and what is most important are things such as leisure, tourism, computers, the internet, the global market, and impassive "creativity". In other words, they alienate themselves from others.

Children risk becoming so fascinated by this technological and automated world that they are absorbed by it, and lose the ability to interact with other people.

However, some children seen how dangerous it is to become isolated from the rest of the world--they have not lost their humanity. The see where the world is heading, and speak out through their artworks.

Other children believe, and they are right to do so, that adults must work on the challenge of utopia.

The voices of children and the efforts of adults must unite to change the future of our world.

Enzo Mari bio

Enzo Mari was born in Novara, Italy, in 1931. An artist and designer, he attended the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, Italy in the early '50s and dedicated his attention to research into the psychology of vision, planning perceptive structures and the methodology of design. Today he lives and works in Milan.

His works have been exhibited in many museums, including the Archivio del Progetto of the University of Parma and the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, (both in Italy); the Museum of Modern Art in New York City; three museums in Germany: the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum in Krefeld, the Kunstmuseum in Dusseldorf and the Museum fur Kunst and Gewerbe of Hamburg; the Modern Museum of

Stockholm, Sweden; the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam, Netherlands; and the Power Institute of Fine Arts in Sydney, Australia. His work has also been documented in various books and monographs.

Mari has created over 1,700 projects for Italian and foreign industries, has received many awards for his research work, and teaches courses at universities and institutions in Italy and Austria. In addition, he has written books for children, as well as ones on aesthetics, on methods of perception and projection, and on the function of art on modern society.

Paula Pankok (age 8) Germany

A tree with one leaf

I don't trees to be cut and animals to die.

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Ayesha Ghaffar (age 13) Pakistan

I imagine a futuristic world in which the

Miss Universe beauty contest will have participants from other planets. I picture myself as Miss Earth and hope to win. Well, everything s possible in the future, isn't it?

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Neha Munir Siddiqui (age 11) Pakistan

Don't destroy my future. Moral: Heaven cannot be built on the fumes of explosion.

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Maxim Ponitz (age 15) Germany

Leadership

Robots have assumed control over humans. They will be in control until they have learned from past mistakes.

(Maxi suffers from amyotrophia He has been confined to a wheelchair for 10 years now and paints with all his remaining energy. Sometimes his teacher holds his hand to help him paint. They are a team. Maxi has a sunny soul and is very wise. Painting with him makes me focus and refocus on the essential things in life. Ute Laux, painter and Max's teacher)

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Sarah Maluck (age 9) Germany

The horse now and in the future This is my picture of a horse now and in the future. The horse of the future is square because it is a descendant of a horse and a robot. It was bred by them through artificial insemination.

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Plamen Guntschev (age 11) Bulgaria

War

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Adriana Momtschilova (age 10) Bulgaria

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Kiril Vladimirov (age 13) Bulgaria

Nature in the 21st Century Everything is packed, calculated and sold

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Franziska Maas and Janine Ihde (both age 13) Germany

We are Friends

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Bisser (age 12) Bulgaria

Mother and Me

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Sophie Kirschke (age 17) Germany

Soon to be present ...

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Sergey Borisenko (age 14) Russia

Usual day of City Utopia in 2125 I think in future will be very hot climate. But all people will be adapted for this conditions. And that's why just thin clothes will enough to protect them from the heat and harmful effects.

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Mariam Khan (age 12) Pakistan

"Third eye vision"

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Mariam Khan (age 12) Pakistan

Mariam has Down's Syndrome. She came for the opening cermony of exhibition

"Small Wonder" could be the name of the baby Mariam Khan; at birth she was diagnosed with Down's Syndrome, with an extra chromosome. Now twelve, she tries hard to be her best. She can speak only thirty words, but each one is meaningful and used purposefully. Art is her way of communication. Through art, Mariam speaks many languages.

All special children on this planet are the most beautiful creation of God: they feel pain, heat and hunger but most of all they feel love. Mariam is an ambassador of love, peace and courage for all the special children of the world through her art. The peace and harmony the world needs today and in the future comes from extending love even if it's not returned.

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Carola Mahnke (age 16) Germany

Migration

Now people can still be held, but not much longer and they will all be gone. Some try to stay, but how can they without jobs. The tree shows how dead Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is and the scarecrow with the crow demonstrates how ugly and repelling it is--Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the Land of the colza fields.

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