Human Rights Day was celebrated in style in Vienna this year with Graz-based artist Oskar Stocker conducting two workshops with school children and international students on the topic of human rights. Stocker, whose FACING NATIONS exhibition is currently on display in the VIC (www.facingnations.com) introduced participants to his art and the FACING NATIONS project before guiding them in creating their own "panorama of humanity". FACING NATIONS is based on the idea of giving a face to all people in our global society, independent of their origin, skin colour, gender, language, religion and political or other beliefs (Article 2, Universal Declaration of Human Rights). Based on this understanding of a "Culture of Humanity", in 2008 - to mark the 60th anniversary of the UDHR - the Austrian broadcaster ORF Styria initiated this unique artistic, cultural, humanistic project, which presents the spirit of the Declaration and its importance for our society in a very special manner. The "ORF-Artist in Residence" Oskar Stocker painted 124 large oil portraits of 124 people from 124 nations/territories, which are joined together to form a painted surface, over 150 meters long: None of these individual pictures stands alone. Each is a part of this unique "panorama of humanity". "All these people were chosen at random, and I met every single one of them and learned about their lives and their stories", explained the artist. "The participation in this project has created a new type of community in which people share their histories and support each other - some have even become friends and business partners in the course of this endeavour."
In the morning, an 8th grade art class from the Vienna International School came to the VIC to learn about FACING NATIONS, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to work with photographs of each other, combining faces and creating new "mixed" identities. "The new portraits look like completely different people, but they look like us, too!", exclaimed one participant. The pupils then chose one article of the UDHR to read out in all the languages that were represented in the group: 14 altogether. They were also asked to reflect on discrimination in their daily lives, what experiences they have had and what could be done to confront and combat it.
In the afternoon, Mr. Stocker interacted with 18 students of the Erasmus Student Network Association of Corvinus University, Budapest. Previously, the group had heard lectures about the United Nations, about human trafficking and had an interactive discussion on the topic of human rights and discrimination over lunch with UNIS Director Maher Nasser. He said he hoped that the participants would continue to reflect on the issues discussed during the day and make advocacy for human rights and fighting discrimination a central part in their commitment to creating a better world. After wards, the artist led the students through a special tour of his exhibition followed by an art workshop. The students who came from countries including Ukraine, Portugal, Cameroon, Iran, Mexico and Turkey did their own take on producing a Facing Nations-like exhibit, amid much laughter and enthusiasm. A nose here, an eyebrow there - whole new people were created as the students used cut-outs of their own photographs to build new portraits symbolising the one-ness of mankind. The students who participated in a UNIS - organized Human Rights Students Forum in the morning, also read out the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, each in their own language.
UNIS Vienna also supported Human Rights Day events in Slovakia (a student-led awareness-raising event in Levice) and Slovenia (a lecture and concert performance organized by the Slovenian UNA); and UNIS Director Maher Nasser gave a presentation on this year's theme "Embrace Diversity - End Discrimination" to over 100 high-school student at the Vienna International School.
