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Ohana ODV, in collaboration with stencil artist luvol and photographer Claudio Asile, and in
partnership with the associations UYUM – Sosyal Uyum ve Girisimcilik Dernegi and WIR – Verein fur Wissenshaft, Integration und Religion e.V.  presents “#sonsandaughters: all the children are our sons and daughters. Refugee children on the Balkan route”, a project that won an Erasmus + price from the European Community or the year 2023/2024, which made
it possible to cover a large part of its travel and implementation costs.

Resulting in a multimedia exhibition, #sonsandaughters is an itinerant humanitarian project, faithful to the experiences undergone by its protagonists on the sadly famous Balkan Route. The starting and arrival points of the project, which retraces “the game” – as it is defined by migrants – are, in fact, upstream and downstream of the route: in Şanlıurfa, Turkey and in Manheim, Germany.

The exhibition was conceived as a real journey, designed to delve into the Route, but above all into the lives and expectations of these children. The main aim is therefore not to retrace the Route, but rather to retrace the dreams and hopes of its young protagonists. Stencils, photographs and videos were chosen as the means to bring us closer to these faces that gradually become familiar and dear. No longer just numbers, no longer simply stereotypes, no longer anonymous stories of unknown and distant faces, but #sonsandaughters.

The theme, or better said, the lenses through which to read and interpret the exhibition, are childhood, which we want to give back a position of centrality and protagonism. The works on display are not, in fact, simple portraits created by the artists taking the participating children as models; on the contrary, the children themselves become subject-artists, a creative gaze. Many of the chosen photos are taken by them, and also become paper matrices and carvings for elaborated stencils.

#sonsandaughters therefore deals with the themes of the Balkan Route and especially ofchildhood on the Balkan Route, however the project and the consequent exhibition does not explore the dark and atrocious meanders of the latter themes, but rather focuses on the hopes, expectations and dreams of the young protagonists. Children and their personalities, their talents, are thus at the center of attention, just as the protection of these completely forgotten new generations should be the center of attention.

Our goal is to put these children and their protection back at the center of each of our society’s political, economic and social decision. Our society should consider all of them as its “children”, hence the name of the project and the exhibition: #sonsandaughters.

The exhibition is available to anyone who would like to host it to help spread the important message it carries. For information you can write to projects@ohanaodv.com



ARTISTS

Federico Vullo aka luvol, stencil artist

www.federicoluvol.com

Federico Vullo – luvol – born in 1991, is a photo stencil artist who carves and creates his matrices by hand, matrices often obtained from his own photographs. Self-taught, he became passionate about stencil art by observing the techniques of internationally renowned artists, after which his passion for stencils led him to prefer a type of intuitive carving that, to an inexperienced eye, may seem simple, but actually is the result of years of experience.

The main theme of luvol’s works has always been the genuineness of children, portrayed especially when playing. The images of innocence, spontaneity and lightheartedness characterize his work, despite in reality he is accustomed to working in contexts that are anything but carefree. luvol’s works are, in fact, mainly made in Middle Eastern contexts such as Syria and Palestine, where the artist often travels, also to carry out humanitarian missions.

The artworks are made on multiple surfaces, and the artist’s favorites are those coming from the urban context, such as disused road signs or other forgotten, ruined, or rusty surfaces.

Since 2021, luvol has begun a constant and active collaboration with Ohana association, which led him to conceive and develop the project #sonsandaughtes, that led him on the Balkan route in order to leave an artistic message, but above all a denunciation regarding the conditions of refugee children coming from conflict zones, who are denied every right.

Claudio Asile, photographer

www.claudioasile.com

Claudio Asile is a photographer and video maker from Novara who, for years, has captured various subjects with his camera and his video camera in various fields, following his philosophy of stylistic experimentation.

He came to photographic reportage thanks to a volunteering experience in a Rom camp in Romania, collaborating with an association aiming at the schooling of children in territories and situations of hardship: “For a whole week, I reconstructed a typical day of someone who was ensuring that children wouldn’t find themselves in dangerous situations by creating a safe environment and showing other possible ways”.

This was followed by several other works relating to religious journeys in Spain, published in national magazines such as “Meridiani”, and personal projects relating to the second generation of migrants in Italy, to whom an exhibition held in the town of Stresa,Italy was dedicated.

In 2023, he began his collaboration with stencil artist luvol and the association Ohana ODV as part of the project #sonsandaughters.

THE ASSOCIATIONS

Ohana ODV, Italy

www.ohanaodv.com

OHANA volunteering association was founded in December 2020 in Novara, Italy but with distant objectives, and was born to react to the political and media abandonment by the “higher levels”, of the “lower levels”. OHANA therefore inhabits that vivid and prolific tension between local and global, and operates mainly between Novara, south-eastern Turkey, and Syria.

OHANA cares about humanitarian emergencies that generate the need for immediate, short-term aid, but at the same time also about even more constructive long-term projects and financing. It is in this latter area, moreover, that its commitment to raising awareness among the civil society on the issues that are close to its heart fits in. A goal that fully falls within, for example, the objectives pursued by the #sonsandaughters exhibition.

OHANA sees in Children’s Rights the building blocks for a fairer adult world. The project and the related exhibition #sonsandaughters explicitly convey this vision, which add to the changing constellation of OHANA projects focused on childhood.

UYUM – Sosyal Uyum ve Girisimcilik Dernegi, Turchia

www.sosyaluyum.org

The Association for Social Cohesion and Entrepreneurship UYUM, founded in Sanliurfa, Turkey, in 2022, by migrants and local youth, aims to promote social cohesion and the culture of coexistence between migrants and local communities through various projects focused on cohesion, entrepreneurship, digitalization and environmental awareness.

To achieve these goals, the association uses tools and methods such as workshops, events and training programs that focus on the empowerment of groups and young people with fewer opportunities, supporting the development of skills and social entrepreneurship initiatives.

The association actively collaborates with other NGOs, as well as with various universities and institutions, participating in international projects such as Erasmus+ in order to promote cultural exchange and understanding.

WIR – Verein fur Wissenshaft, Integration und Religion e.V. , Germania

www.wirverein.de

The association WIR e.V. was founded in 2008 and is active in the social field, promoting cohesion and integration initiatives in Germany, but with objectives that also extend to other areas.

WIR eV. organizes activities for migrants and refugees, plans events, conferences and projects specifically for young people and implements preventive measures, such as prevention projects against gambling, drugs, alcohol abuse and violence.

In the area of integration and migration, where the association is active, the two successful projects named “We are together” and “Migrant Suitcase” have been put into place with the financial support of the German-Turkish Youth Bridge and in cooperation with various international universities.

The association also publishes its own magazine aimed at promoting intercultural dialogue.