The world through children's eyes<\/p>\n
Endy M.Bayuni
\nThe Jakarta Post\/Oslo<\/p>\n
It is said that children are people
\nBut people do not exist without a culture
\nChildren are people who belong to the future
\nAnd they have the right to their own culture
\nTheir own art and history<\/p>\n
-- The International Museum of Children's Art<\/p>\n
Brackish water occupies the bottom half of the canvas. Floating
\nare trees and tree trunks, cars of different colors and sizes,
\nand debris.<\/p>\n
Drawings of people on rooftops and the upper floor of houses
\nin the distant background complete the picture of utter havoc. A
\nstill picture but its vivid images and strong colors leave a deep
\nand lasting impression of the total destruction that the tsunami
\nleft in its trail in Banda Aceh last year.<\/p>\n
The drawing is the work of Ria Purnama, born 1991. A
\nphotograph of her in jilbab (Muslim head scarf) is pinned next to
\nit. A small accompanying note explains that when disaster struck
\non Dec. 26, Ria and her family were not home. Just as well. They
\nsurvived, but they lost everything, the house and all its
\ncontents.<\/p>\n
Ria's work is one of 43 currently on display depicting the
\ntsunami and its aftermath at the International Museum of
\nChildren's Art in Oslo.<\/p>\n
The collection was brought here by the Norwegian Refugee
\nCouncil for display to help bring to the Norwegian public, adults
\nand children, as well as foreign visitors, an awareness of the
\ntragedy and more specifically, about how children of Aceh see the
\ntragedy themselves.<\/p>\n
The pictures were the winners of a workshop organized in Banda
\nAceh in March, or just three months after the disaster. Some of
\nthem convey optimism, but others express pessimism or even
\ndejection.<\/p>\n
Annisa Marlin, a 12-year-old girl from Banda Aceh, draws
\ninundated land with the sun shining brightly in the background,
\nand she entitles it Welcome Sunrise.<\/p>\n
Suci Maulina, 13, also from Banda Aceh, drew the water
\npounding a neighborhood. She calls her work We can do nothing.<\/p>\n
One girl even sounds fatalistic, saying in her note she is
\nwilling to sacrifice herself next time around but pleads to God
\nto send a messenger beforehand to warn of the impending disaster.<\/p>\n
There is one theme common to all the paintings and that is the
\nchoice of colors.<\/p>\n
"Can someone tell me why they like to use strong, rather than
\nsoft, colors?" Angela Goldin, the general manager of the museum,
\nasks when a group of Indonesians, including two dignitaries from
\nAceh, visited the three-story unassuming blue and white villa.<\/p>\n
None of the Indonesians volunteered an answer, each still
\nabsorbing the meaning of the drawings they were looking at.<\/p>\n
"The strong colors send a powerful message," Goldin says.
\nThose who knew little about art like myself nodded in relief
\nafter learning the implication of the different colors used.<\/p>\n
On display here since Sept. 20, the paintings will remain in a
\nbasement room of the museum for one more month. The Norwegian
\nRefugee Council had planned to return them to their rightful
\nowners, a foundation in Indonesia, but apparently, museums from
\nother Norwegian towns, had expressed interest in bringing the
\npaintings there after Oslo.<\/p>\n
Besides the exhibition, all the rooms in the museum, from the
\nbasement to the attic, are filled with paintings and ornaments
\nwith one common bond: They are all the work of children.<\/p>\n
Goldin says the museum's collection could be as big as 300,000
\nitems (no precise figure is available because it is still making
\nthe database). The museum's walls can only accommodate about a
\nfifth of the entire collection, leaving the rest stacked up
\nsomewhere in the storeroom.<\/p>\n
Besides the permanent collection, the museum holds thematic
\nexhibitions. In one attic room, there is a display of drawings by
\nPolish teenagers about drug abuse. Black is the dominant color,
\nand not unexpectedly, the drawings tend to be gloomy. This
\nsection is a no-zone for children under 12 because of the
\npsychological impact it might have on them.<\/p>\n
A less gloomy exhibition is held on the second floor of the
\nmuseum through drawings by top winners of a recent painting
\ncompetition for Norwegian children who were asked to draw their
\nimpression of Norway 100 years from now.<\/p>\n
Children's imagination can run wild when it knows no bounds.
\nWho would have predicted 100 years ago about computers, cell
\nphones, airplane travel, travel to the moon and back, or cable
\ntelevision and the Internet.<\/p>\n
One drawings tells of a clock that will run much faster than
\ntoday, a flying car fitted with a rotor, a school airbus
\n(whatever that means), and a flying mobile phone.<\/p>\n
"Norwegian children are materialistic," Goldin said explaining
\nthe recurrent theme among the drawings.<\/p>\n
The two winners were both about what future schools would look
\nlike. Their works have been honored by the government in
\nNorwegian national postal stamps.<\/p>\n
Some works by Indonesian children made it into the permanent
\ncollection.<\/p>\n
One by 10-year-old Sisylia Octavia Candra depicts a small girl
\nassisting her mother breast-feeding a baby. Another, of two
\ncolorful cats, is the work of five-year-old Qanita Qamarani.
\nTheir works have been immortalized in postcards which are sold at
\nthe souvenir shop in the basement.<\/p>\n
The museum is the brainchild of Rafael and Alla Goldin and to
\ndate is the only international museum of its kind in the world.
\nWhile others collect drawings of their own nationalities, the
\nOslo museum's collection represents the work of artists in 150
\ncountries.<\/p>\n
"Age is not the most important factor where art is concerned,"
\nRafael Goldin wrote before he died in 1994.<\/p>",
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