Brian is honored to have War Toys work included in the exhibition Déflagrations, curated by Zérane Girardeau, at the MUCEM in Marseille, France. With support from the French Ministry of Culture and organizations including the UNHCR, UNICEF, SOS Villages D’Enfants, Human Rights Watch, and Doctors Without Borders, Zérane has built a remarkable exhibition that focuses on children’s graphical accounts of war and mass crimes. It is an extension of the work she does as director of the nonprofit association Déflagrations which seeks to preserve and present children’s often-undervalued perspectives on their own traumatic experiences, shared through creative expression.
Prints of the photo/drawing pair “Survivor. Alone.” appear in the exhibition. The photograph was created in 2016 in response to an anonymous, Syrian, refugee girl revealing her feelings of intense isolation and guilt over surviving an airstrike that killed the rest of her family in Aleppo. In an art-based interview, conducted by art therapist and War Toys board member Myra Saad at a Kayany Foundation school, the girl drew herself crying in a field of ash, protected by an invisible shield from the missiles falling above. Note that the girl’s name has been pixelated on the top right of her drawing to preserve the anonymity that she requested.
The Mucem is currently closed due to current COVID-19 restrictions within France, but the show’s run has just been extended until 29 August 2021.