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Suleman, Strength Weave Beauty 2017.jpg

From Your Strength, I Weave Your Beauty

This mural shows an older woman on the left, with struggle carved onto her face. On the other side, we see her young daughter who pulls the fog that envelops her mother and uses this fog to weave threads of gold, creating a new life for both of them. It is situated in Lodhi Colony, an area of New Delhi that is full of murals thanks to the St+Art India Foundation. This non-profit organisation takes up projects to make art accessible to the public with their murals and installations in the area. This piece was created by Shilo Shiv Suleman with survivors of sex trafficking who are involved in Sewing New Futures. This is a social enterprise that empowers survivors and girls at risk of trafficking through career training, education, medical care, and social services. The company opened their pilot centre in May 2014 and has gone on to train and employ women to create fashion items, which are sold worldwide through their website. Suleman is involved with the Fearless Collective, an organisation that is building a movement of women across South Asia using beauty and art to reclaim public spaces with their stories. Set up in 2013, the organisation has created 25 murals, in eight countries and with hundreds of co-creators and is currently raising funds to open the first Fearless Collective Public Art Residency. 

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Fighting Until We Find Them (Luchando Hasta Encontrarlas)

The project Luchando Hasta Encontrarlas (Fighting Until We Find Them) was started by a group of mothers of girls from Juarez, Mexico who went missing and are presumed dead. The girls' family members and the police believe that these women were kidnapped and trafficked as prostitutes before being murdered. Since 1993 more than 430 women have disappeared and been murdered in the area. The project raises awareness by creating murals in the region, with public buildings, churches and businesses donating their walls for artists to create these pieces. Their aim is to create 200 murals across Ciudad Juarez to raise awareness of what is happening to young girls and women in this region and demand justice for those who have lost their lives. The local authorities told families that they were putting a stop to the search for their daughters, claiming that they were giving the city a 'bad name'. However these families are determined to campaign for justice. The above murals were created by Maclovio Macias and the artist also took part in a 200 mile march with many mothers who have lost their daughters. In the first piece, the quote reads 'No me Hallo. Estoy Desaparecida', which translates to 'I do not find me, I'm missing'. The rest of the mural contains images of mothers holding posters of their missing daughters, and these depict real families and real missing women. For example, the final image shows Esmeralda Castillo, who disappeared on 19th May 2009. 

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Elimination of Violence Against Women

This mural was created by street artist Hyuro as part of a series of pieces that celebrated the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on 25th November 2013. Hyuro is one of many artists who took part in the Memorie Urbane in Italy.This concept began in 2011 when Davide Rossillo, the president of creative tourism, had an idea about bringing contemporary art practices into the open space to create an open-ait museum. Memorie Urban proposes a new way of doing tourism and the team behind it began recognising 25th November in their project with this piece in 2013. This specific mural is in the city of Formia. It shows rows of women holding a banner with hundreds of tally marks, highlighting the number of women who have been subjected to violence, both inside and outside of slavery. The women and the banner wrap around a column on three faces. When these faces are put together (as in the first picture above) they form the continuous line of women and tallies.

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Anti-Slavery Day

This mural was created on the wall of the People's Republic of Stokes Croft for Anti-Slavery Day on 12th October 2012. The PRSC was established in 2006 and is a community enterprise that aims to improve the landscape of Stokes Croft through direct action and creating a sense of identity.The mural highlights the forced sexual exploitation of women and girls. It states that '2 million women and girls imprisoned in the sex trade…you're probably standing within 5ft of one of them now'. It also provided a freephone helpline number.Unfortunately this mural no longer exists.

Gamma Acosta, HT Mural 2015.jpg

#NotForSale

This mural was painted by graffiti artist Gamma Acosta on the side of his family's restaurant. He frequently paints murals on this site and this mural on human trafficking is no longer present. Acosta believes that the temporary nature of his murals encourages people to visit them whilst they are there. Painted in 2015, this piece and its title #NotForSale highlights the issue of forced sexual exploitation.

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#MissingGirl (portrait)

The organisation MISSING was founded by Leena Kerjriwal and started as a public art project after years of working with NGOs such as Apne Aap, Hamari Muskan and New Light. As an artist, Kejriwal fought against human trafficking by creating installations in galleries that brought up the realities of sex trafficking. She felt that the world needed a new approach to tackling human trafficking and introduced MISSING as a four-part Art As Activism movement through her #MissingGirl stencil campaign.The stencil campaign aimed to raise awareness of human trafficking in local communities and educate people on the issue, as well as helping people thinking about how they can stop modern slavery. Over two years, the campaign has spread beyond India to include six countries and 18 cities, with 2,500 stencils and over 42 million impressions made on people. The campaign continues today and you can find out more here. The stencil is a black silhouette of a young girl. This black hole cut out from the fabric of our environment shows how millions of girls disappear as a result of modern slavery.