120 students of 6th
grade at Oharu Elementary School created a Kids’ Guernica peace mural and it was
exhibited in their school on November 16 and 17, 2012. The school is located
near to Nagoya City in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. The students hold many
workshops to study a lot about world peace and each of them wrote his/her own essay
on peace.
They decided on “Light, Life and Bonds” as the theme of their peace mural because they thought that these three were important elements of peace. “Light” symbolizes “hope of human being” as the brilliance of the sun and galaxy eternally exists in the universe. “Life” is a metaphor of succession and the helix structure of DNA and the mother earth are showing the origin of life and the biological diversities. The continuity of geometrical patterns expresses “Bonds” and indicates the biological diversities and the connectedness among various races. As well as the huge painting, the students also created clay-figures titled “Hands of Hope” to express the spirit of peace. All the clay-hands were installed in front of the painting as a collaboration of painting and modeling to convey their message against a violent world. World peace is not yet achieved but they expressed their strong wish for peace. Having such a dream, they completed their art work.
