How I see the world

As part of the UN's 60th anniversary celebrations, Geneva World recently organised an exhibition of drawings and paintings by children from all UN member states in Geneva, Switzerland. Geneva World is a cultural and philanthropic association founded in Geneva, on July 8, 2004, with the main objective to weave ties between the world's existing cultures.

"How I see the world from where I live" is the theme of this collective art exhibition. Children from the 191 member states of the UN, including Malta, were invited to express their view of the world from their own unique perspective. This exhibition provided the children with an opportunity to freely express their joy, hopes and concerns about our world.

The art exhibition is currently being held in various parts of the world, including the UN headquarters in New York. Jean Cordey was responsible for the realisation of the entire exhibition.

To realise this project, Geneva World needed a minimum of ten drawings or paintings from every country. All exhibits were compiled in a catalogue. One painting from each country was then selected to be eventually displayed. Furthermore, all artworks currently feature on the Website http://genevaworld.com.

St Aloysius' College was invited to participate in the exhibition. Marilyn Hodgson, a Scottish artist and art promoter residing in Malta, was responsible for the co-ordination of drawings representing Malta.

Ten students from Form 2 were enthusiastic to work on this project. The students, together with the college's art teacher, Mr Kevin Sciberras, discussed various issues represented in their artworks.

After some brainstorming, the students selected the topic portrayed in their works. The artworks were mainly carried out during art lessons. In spite of their young age, the students were able to use own imagination to create powerful messages.

Some students focused on how we see the world through different means of communication and how mobile phones and the Internet affected our lifestyle. Others were entirely concerned about pollution and traffic congestion. This project provided the perfect opportunity to deliver such messages through the art medium.

Eventually, the students eagerly presented and described their artworks to Ms Hodgson, who later was very happy to announce to the college's rector, Fr Patrick Magro, SJ, that the artwork by Chardian Camilleri from Class 2C was selected to represent Malta.

This was very good news to Chardian and all at St Aloysius. However, the other students who took part - Marius Abela, Kurt Camenzuli, Christian Darmanin, Ryan Bugeja, Gavin Borg, Dennis Dalli, Josef Beck, Delwyn Camilleri and Jonathan Ebejer - were also congratulated.