Geneva Peace Week 2024: Arts and Peace Encounters

• Date: Friday, 18 October 2024
• Time: 09:00 - 10:30 (90 min)
• Location: Auditorium Ivan Pictet, Maison de la Paix and hybrid
• Interpretation: Interpretation services are available for all GPW events, both on-site and online, through Worldly IA
• Participation: All events during Geneva Peace Week will be available on-site and online.

Art plays a crucial role in societal transformation, offering individuals and communities empathy, hope, and the motivation to take action. By engaging our imagination, art encourages a shift from binary and linear thinking to a holistic experience. Various strategies have been developed to integrate art into conflict regions and fragile contexts, highlighting its transformative potential.

The Arts and Peace Encounters Event at this year's edition of Geneva Peace Week is designed as an immersive journey through different forms of artistic expression, including poetry, theater, music, and visual arts, combined with storytelling and short talks from artists, peacebuilders, and experts at the intersection of art and peace.

This event is organised by the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform, Caux Initiatives of Change, the Kofi Annan Foundation, the Embajada de Colombia en Suiza and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and made possible with the financial support of the Permanent Mission of the United States of America to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva.

Programme

Tuning into Empathy with Music for Peace

Hyung Joon Won, a South Korean violinist will perform and share his experience of using music to tune into the “other”.

Hyung Joon Won received the ‘Fair Saturday Foundation Award’ at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao in 2022 for holding a joint performance between North and South Koreas in Shanghai, China and Stockholm, Sweden in 2019.  As a child prodigy, Mr. Won gave his first solo performance with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of ten and he won numerous competitions such as the Kingsville International competition, the Juilliard Concerto competition and New York Philharmonic ‘Young Performer’s Audition under the baton of Kurt Masur. Mr. Won has worked with a number of world-renown orchestras as a soloist, including the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, the Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra, the Hong Kong Pan Asia Philharmonic, Massapequa Philharmonic, KBS Symphony and the Marrowstone Festival Orchestra. In 1990, Mr. Won proudly represented South Korea when he performed at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland. The forum, which celebrated the 1990 reunification of East and West Germany, inspired Mr. Won to think of music as a medium of reconciliation. In 2017, he performed and gave a speech at UN Geneva as a Peace Talks speaker and such performances strengthened his resolve to leverage his musical career for the reunification of North and South Korea. 

In particular, Mr.Won's 'Panmunjom Peace Concert in 70th Anniversary of Liberation' in 2015 was produced as the 9AT38 documentary film and introduced at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. Since 2017, Mr.Won has collaborated with Maestro Toshiyuki Shimada & the members from Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra & Yale Symphony Orchestra by organizing the DMZ Peace Concert(2018) & the Jeju Island Peace Workshop(2019)and had a joint concert both at the Harvard Paine Concert Hall & Woolsey Hall in 2017. 

Currently, he is conducting research on virus healing through the 'COVID-19 Vaccine Music' project with MIT Professor Markus Buehler and is presently serving as Musical Director of Lindenbaum Festival Orchestra, Chief Representative of Soundwith, an Honorary Member of Kirkland House, Harvard University, and an International chair of the Cinema for Peace Foundation of Germany.

Theater & Conflict Resolution

An interactive experience with Dr Guila Clara Kessous, Peace Ambassador, UNESCO Artist, and founder of the Sarah & Hajar Accords.

With:

Recipient of a doctorate under Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel’s direction and an MBA of ESSEC Business School, Dr. Guila Clara Kessous is a UNESCO Artist for Peace, Peace Ambassador and executive coach. She combines performing art and activism working as an “artivist” helping population victims of post traumatic syndroms. She has worked with displaced population in Bangladesh (Rohingyas), in Rwanda (survivors of genocides) as well as in Congo with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Mukwege. As a teacher at the Harvard Carr Center for Human Rights Policies at Harvard Kennedy School, she created the course “Theatre and Human Rights” and received the Derek Bok Center Award for excellence in teaching. As an executive coach, she developed specific training using role games and Harvard negotiation techniques to enhance executive inner empowerment. She became “Rising Talent” for the Women’s Forum for the Economy and the Society helping thousands of executives for a more assertive and positive leadership. She is running the International Day of Women’s Rights and World Art Day at UNESCO. Dr Kessous has been knighted by the French government.

JerusalemS

Presentation of a collaborative project of Licra Geneva with Geneva’s Institut des Cultures Arabes et Mediterraneennes, designed to weave links between communities, whatever their religion origins or lifestyle choices, in a secular and universalist spirit.

The JerusalemS project, whose “S” underlines plurality, welcomes our particularities in defending a common humanity. The project includes the display of an 8 metre fresco created with Swiss artist François Burland, conceived as a manifesto and called upon to travel and inspire dialogue forums and encounters between people, and the reading of short verses created in a workshop with Swiss writer, Sandra Modiano. (in French and English)

With:

• Carole Fumeaux, Secretary General of Licra Geneva
• Alain Bittar, Director Institut des Cultures Arabes et Méditerranéennes (ICAM)

The role of the Arts in the liberation of the apartheid regime in South Africa 

With:

• Diwele Molale Lubi is from South African origin. He is a choreographer, dance artist, conference speaker, teacher and artistic director at Matlosana Centre for the Arts Company (Cie Matlosana) .
• Delphine Digonnet is a musician/singer/songwriter under the name Del Phyn, lead singer of the tropical band Zy-amm in Geneva, life coach, dance instructor and manager of Danceteam International Geneva.

Colombia Experience: Music and Gender for Peace

Alejandra Quintana Martínez, Director of the Equity for Peace Strategic Line at Alianza para la Paz,(APAZ), will present the ACORDES project implemented in Colombia in partnership with Kofi Annan Foundation, and Fundación Nacional Batuta on peace and gender equity through music education as part of the initiative “Voices of Reconciliation”. 

With:

• Alejandra Quintana Martínez, Director of the Equity for Peace Strategic Line at Alianza para la Paz

A Swiss perspective on Culture and Peace

With:

• Rudi von Planta, Peace Governance, and Equality Section, Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, based on the paper: “Réflexions : culture et pérennisation de la paix”

Painting Unveiling

With:

Fernando Cometto is a contemporary Argentinian painter and an artist-in-residence during Geneva Peace Week who will have actively participated during the week, engaging with attendees and capturing the essence of their conversations in a unique piece of art that he will present during the Arts and Peace Encounters. 

Fernando embarked on his artistic journey with his initial landing in Spain, where he continued to refine and expand his distinctive pictorial language, often utilizing recycled materials in his creations. Participating in numerous exhibitions and finding a place in private collections across Europe, South America, the United States, South Korea, and Australia, Fernando Cometto's work transcends borders, resonating with audiences across the globe. Through his vibrant and evocative canvases, he invites viewers to explore the dynamic interplay between imagination and reality, creating a visual language that speaks to the universal threads that connect us all. (More on Fernando here)

Moderators 

MARUEE PAHUJA, Creative Leadership youth team & Expressive Arts Consultant, Caux Initiatives of Change Foundation

Maruee Pahuja, an impassioned Expressive Arts Therapy facilitator and strategist, visual artist, and eye-care practitioner, is dedicated to enriching lives through the power of arts and science. As an Expressive Arts Consultant with Caux Initiatives of Change's Art and Peace Encounters programme, she contributes strategic insights to foster robust dialogues in peacebuilding using arts-based approaches. Additionally, she serves as a core team member of the Creative Leadership youth team, driving content creation and strategy. Currently, she is designing a programme/project on Conscious Art with the School of Conscious Politics and is building on a pilot program in arts-based coaching with Step Ahead Berlin, one of the leading institutes in Expressive Arts, alongside the assistant dean of the European Graduate School. Maruee's journey is marked by pioneering efforts in developing arts-based therapeutic interventions and leading workshops that inspire profound transformation. From crafting curriculums to strategizing content that incites action, Maruee navigates the complexities of human emotions and societal needs with unwavering creativity and compassion.

SARAH NOBLE, Head of Global Engagement, Caux Initiatives of Change Foundation

Sarah Noble is the Head of Global Engagement at the Caux Initiatives of Change Foundation. She is passionate about showcasing people's stories about how we build peace with each other and the planet. She brings with her more than 20 years of experience and has held leadership positions at international organisations focused on peacebuilding, humanitarian issues, and independent media. Sarah is co-founder and curator of the Peace Talks at Interpeace and also served as Director of External Relations at The New Humanitarian, a non-profit newsroom that puts quality, independent journalism at the service of the millions of people affected by humanitarian crises around the world. In her TEDx talk, Storytelling is Our Real-Life Superpower, she invites us to embrace this ability to take on the existential issues of our time and create a better future.

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