Piece by Peace

I've been in the Refusal of the Call recently, a stage in Joseph Campbell's Monomyth particularly with this art for peacebuilding calling as part of my life - work. I felt I could turn it down and I could choose not to do it as I value integrity in my process particularly with inner peace as I come to terms with heavy release and healing work these last two years. 

Children, guided dream messages, and what is possible for new ways of healing and transforming the self, community, and the earth have always been there to remind me that what I need to speak about is already from within - what I experience, what the people I know have already done, and most importantly what important life lessons are there to share about the whole story of creative peacebuilding. 

Up to the last minute resisted but on the day of the talk fully embraced for this has always been not entirely about myself but something bigger at work. I spoke  about Art for Peacebuilding for the Asia - Europe Foundation University Alumni Network's (ASEFUAN) annual conference and meeting last August 1 at the Ateneo de Manila University. 

Here's the link to the conference overview:

11th ASEFUAN Academic Conference and Annual General Meeting: Conflict Transformation and Peaceful Settlement of Disputes in Asia and Europe

Here's the link to the program:
http://www.asefuan.org/docs/agm2012_programme_public.pdf

I felt that talking about art based peacebuilding was not enough. I'm a firm believer of experience in the work. I asked the organizers to allow me to set up an experiential artmaking process. They gladly accommodated my request to be designed alongside their photo exhibit entitled Shared Heritage: As We See It. The photographs are part of a traveling exhibit featuring the works of European and Asian delegates of last year's ASEF University program. 

Alongside, I set up Piece by Peace: Weaving Shared Heritage and Shared Future an interactive "tapestry" making installation.

Piece by Peace is an interactive artmaking installation inspired by the indigenous weaving traditions around the world. Tapestries are transformed into clothing that serve as social and political identities symbolizing uniqueness and diversity. It symbolizes IDENTITY as what causes some conflict in many parts of the world. Reframing this old way into reconnecting to the essence of the cloth as an interwoven process of many elements, it becomes a process that engages more than one person in dialogue with the other. The whole process emphasized Co-Creation within Third Space between Self and Other and Self as Other in a Shared Space. 

Because its a contemporary piece inspired by the traditional craft of weaving, it is a space where Past and Future meet - where Shared Heritage and Shared Future create a Third Space for dialogue. 

Mangyan and Maguindanao weave lead the way to a path of peace, followed by new ways of weaving stories and peacemaking together as symbolized by new patterns (Photo by Louise Far)

A long blank tapestry of boxes divided into two is a continuation of traditional weaves. As visitors of go around the photo exhibits, they will find elements that are a response or symbolic of the photo panels that they can collect and bring into the tapestry. Working as a dyad in front of someone, they start engaging in a dialogue process of artmaking - combining their elements together to create a new mandalic pattern based on the principles of order, balance, and harmony.

Cross-Cultural interaction with natural elements, fabric paint, feathers, leaves, etc. ( Photo by Louise Far)

Gratitude to the dream messages about this tapestry. 

One was of a woman wearing a large cloak with an image of a woman on its design indicating its source from the Talmud. Another was of young people protesting about a violent massacre and their young spokesperson talking about the nature of things and the many layers that provide meaning to it.