artAZ is delighted to support HELLO WORLD – an international goodwill and solidarity art project by TransCultural Exchange.
Covid-19 seems to have brought a necessary slowdown, if not a downright halt to artistic and cultural gatherings, exchanges and cross-border productions. Although art is best experienced face-to-face for the moment our usual approaches would be inappropriate. Therefore, TransCultural Exchange is proposing an alternative: a virtual, global art project with the aim of continuing to encourage international exchange among artists, showcasing works to new audiences and fostering dialogue among peoples of different cultures – without anyone having to leave their homes.
On June 20, 2020 – the summer/winter solstice, the longest/shortest day of the year – people everywhere are invited to join Hello World’s (virtual) trek around the globe. Visitors can peruse photos, prints and installations by artists from Argentina to Zambia with many stops along the way. Included are artists’ films and videos, trailers of dance performances and musical pieces from all over the world. Visitors across the globe can enjoy an extraordinary variety of diverse, global art without anyone having to leave the safety of their home.
Hundreds of artists and arts & culture venues from over 70 countries make up this tour.
Hello World was inspired by the local efforts gallantly made by artists throughout the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project takes this idea to the global level as a way for artists and arts and cultural venues to demonstrate care and concern not only for their close friends, but also for those far away – to signal that we are all in the pandemic together.
The Project’s aims:
1. To sustain people-to-people interactions within and beyond borders, during the Covid-19 period of travel restrictions and social distancing.
2. To provide all artists and many in the arts and cultural community more visibility during this difficult time of decreased and/or shuttered operations.
3. To address the isolation, loss and fear resulting from the pandemic’s decrease in our usual sources of solace – the arts, a connection with others and the possibility of positive interactions with those outside our usual sphere.
4. To encourage a non-threatening global mindset to stem the rising nationalism, discrimination and other extremist tendencies that often results when people feel scared and stressed.
TransCultural Exchange is a non-profit organisation fostering a greater understanding of world cultures through high-quality art projects, cultural exchanges and educational programming, across various disciplines, for three-decades. Click HERE to find out more about them.
Join us on June 20th, 2020, in this simple, but powerful gesture of global solidarity during the COVID-19 pandemic, a greeting to/from the international art community.
Find out more about the project HERE.
