Montage: The Wanderer on the Edge of the World and The Little Prince. (The former first published in L’atmosphère. Météorologie populaire by France Camille Flammarion, the latter from the world-famous children’s book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943).
Children around the world communicate with pictures
To all the children around the world:
Isn’t it strange? Humans have discovered that we all live on one, big globe. And it turns!
Living on top of a ball is quite exciting:
Have you ever found yourself lying on your back and looking really far up into the sky? People say that the sky above goes on and on and on and on… Is that really true? What does it look like up there? Where would you go, if you could always fly further upwards?
And if you would then turn around and look back down, and your sight could break through the ground, through concrete, through meadows, sand, and even through water – what would it look like down there? Where would you go, if you could always dig deeper and sink underground?
We want to paint it both! Take a very big piece of paper, draw a thick line across the middle – this is the ground or floor you’re standing on. Invite your friends and begin together: Where would you go if you were to fly up and up into the sky? And what is deep down in the earth?
When you and your friends are finished drawing, you tie all the pictures into a big package and post it to us in Berlin. Of all the pictures we receive from all the children who live in totally different places around the globe, we’ll make an exciting „Sky & Earth“ book! We will unpack the drawings and hang them; picture by picture, around our white house! The thick line across your picture that separates the sky and earth will continue, connecting with the lines on the neighbouring drawings and growing into a giant circle.
Every picture will be photographed and published on the BILDERPOST website, meaning that wherever you are you can see what other children around the world imagined and drew. After the first exhibition in Berlin, the pictures will be mixed up and repacked. It’s great to get picture post! Every group in the world who took part will receive their own exhibition package, complete with the Sky & Earth book.
Photographer Markus Wild took the picture post idea with him to Nepal.
The children from Shabu Mwangi’s Kids Club at the Wajukuu Art Centre in Nairobi are also taking part!
Painting postcards for the picture post. With the young artists of the “Heinrich Zille Primary School” in Berlin Kreuzberg.
And to finish…? Perhaps this story will never end since we would like to keep in touch with you and each year send out a new question around the world with the BILDERPOST. Very different groups of children, school classes and friends can join in the big action, „BILDERPOST“. We look forward to hearing from you soon. Perhaps there is an artist you know who can help to create a little space for making your pictures? We welcome any support. You are welcome to contact us for new groups who would like to participate in the BILDERPOST.
Greetings to all send the artists of the S27 in Berlin.