This mural was created by Joel Artista and Max Frieder in collaboration with Artolution, Tangentyere and Baker Institute. Artista and Frieder worked with indigenous communities to create the piece and raise awareness of issues facing these communities, including human trafficking. Indigenous youth and elders took part in creating the colourful mural and came up with ideas for the piece with the artists. It was part of Artolution's project to create 400 art projects around the world to raise awareness of human trafficking.Joel Artista (Joel Bergner) has completed several murals against human trafficking and modern slavery. He is an artist, educator and activist who is celebrated for his antislavery artwork and murals. Artista's art is heavily influenced by his work with communities and non-profit organisations, and in 2015 he joined forces with Max Frieder to form Artolution. This community-based arts initiative empowers artists, youth and communities to be agents of positive social change and explore critical societal issues and create opportunities for constructive dialogue.
In 2016, Joel Artista, several Bengali artists and a group of local teenagers collaborated with the Meridian International Center, the US Consulate and NGO Banglanatak.com to create a mural that highlights the issues facing young people in Kolkata. The young people involved in the project had faced several difficult situations in life, including homelessness, human trafficking, poverty and addiction, but were working to overcome their pasts and were specially selected for this project because of their passion for visual art. The piece is on the large outer wall of the Birla Academy of Art and Culture, a hub of ancient and contemporary Bengali visual art. The project began with a mural workshop from Artista and, after some discussion, the group came up with images that they felt represented a journey from a dark past to a future full of hope.In one section, the young artists painted the personification of the demons in their lives and communities, portrayed as a giant fiend terrorising a city. In the next section, each student painted representations of that which gives them peace, strength and support to fight these demons: positive relationships with family and friends, activities such as art and music, religious faith and education. At the closing ceremony for the mural project, dozens gathered around to celebrate the artwork and its message.Joel Artista (Joel Bergner) has completed several murals against human trafficking and modern slavery. He is an artist, educator and activist who is celebrated for his antislavery artwork and murals. Artista's art is heavily influenced by his work with communities and non-profit organisations, and in 2015 he joined forces with Max Frieder to form Artolution. This community-based arts initiative empowers artists, youth and communities to be agents of positive social change and explore critical societal issues and create opportunities for constructive dialogue.
This mural was completed by Joel Artista alongside students from the University of Dayton's Art Street Centre for the Sex Trafficking Awareness Project. This campagin aims to raise awareness of forced prostitution and the sexual exploitation of women and girls in the USA. Through workshops with Artista, students expressions of sex trafficking were combined with an image of the Riman goddess Proserpina. In the mural, she struggles to break free from her captor, the god of the underworld, and her mother, whose hand reaches out for her. This imagery highlights the violent and painful kidnapping and forced prostitution of thousands of girls and women, both American and foreign, across the US every year. Proserpina's struggle is also shown with writing all over the piece in different languages, with phrases such as 'desperation', 'escape', and 'wasted youth'. Joel Artista (Joel Bergner) has completed several murals against human trafficking and modern slavery. He is an artist, educator and activist who is celebrated for his antislavery artwork and murals. Artista's art is heavily influenced by his work with communities and non-profit organisations, and in 2015 he joined forces with Max Frieder to form Artolution. This community-based arts initiative empowers artists, youth and communities to be agents of positive social change and explore critical societal issues and create opportunities for constructive dialogue.
This mural was created by Joel Artista in collaboration with Artolution, Meridian International Center, Shakti Vahini and the US Consulate in Kolkata. It raises awareness of modern slavery in West Bengal and hopes to educate people on human trafficking and enlist their help to end slavery.The piece was part of 'Shanti Arts for Action' by Artolution, a community-based public art organisation that seeks to ignite positive social change through collaborative art making. This project engaged young people in slum communities, street children, those in drug rehabilitation and survivors of human trafficking. The mural was inspired by a photograph that was taken by Brooke Shaden when she worked with Kolata Sanved, an organisation that helps survivors of trafficking with dance therapy. Shaden partnered with the women and the girls to create a series of photographic self-portraits in which they each chose a pose that they felt represented their stories. Sangeeta portrayed herself having her ankle gripped by a menacing hand, while she reached toward another hand for support. When Kolata Sanved collaborator Laura Price showed Artista this photograph, he was moved by the image and the story behind it, and received permission to use it as the central figure in the mural.The sari of the main figure depicts many of the main issues around modern slavery along with images from Bengali folkloric art. On the opening day of the International Anti-Human Trafficking Conclave there was an event, with dancers who are survivors of trafficking. This mural and the events surrounding it place survivors at the centre of their efforts.Joel Artista (Joel Bergner) has completed several murals against human trafficking and modern slavery. He is an artist, educator and activist who is celebrated for his antislavery artwork and murals. Artista's art is heavily influenced by his work with communities and non-profit organisations, and in 2015 he joined forces with Max Frieder to form Artolution. This community-based arts initiative empowers artists, youth and communities to be agents of positive social change and explore critical societal issues and create opportunities for constructive dialogue.