Doctors Without Borders announces collaboration with Oddside Arts at Luminato Festival Toronto 2024
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is delighted to announced a collaboration with Oddside Arts at Luminato Festival Toronto. As part of the Luminato in the Square activities, the two organizations will team up to host an interactive art experience inspired by Oddside Arts’ “Beyond the Soil” project. The experience is designed to bring attention to global forced displacement ahead of World Refugee Day on June 20.
Today, there are over 110 million people forcibly displaced around the world due to conflict, disasters, persecution and the effects of climate change. In partnership with Oddside Arts, MSF aims to bring together artists, humanitarian workers and community members to explore the human stories behind forced displacement. Participants are invited to engage in conversations with MSF medical staff returned from assignments and through a series of creative prompts guided by Oddside Arts. Together we will co-create a large scale art work and share perspectives on this critical world issue.
“We are excited to host this compelling arts initiative ahead of World Refugee Day,” says Sana Bég, Executive Director of Doctors Without Borders Canada. Through the power of art, storytelling and the real testimonies of humanitarian workers and the people MSF supports globally, we hope to raise awareness about the challenges experienced by millions of people globally who have been forcibly displaced from their homes. Now, more than ever, we need to inspire conversation and action to meet the health and humanitarian needs of people in places including Gaza, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and others. Art has the ability to transcend borders and communicate complex emotions and experiences faced by people who have been forced to flee in search of safety. Through this joint workshop, we hope to amplify the voices of the communities we work with. We want to harness the power of collective art to foster empathy, understanding and acknowledge the incredible resilience of people who have been displaced around the world.
Curators of “Beyond the Soil” and Oddside Arts founders, Queen Kukoyi and Nico Taylor add: “We are a compilation of moments that shape us, and for some of us those moments are marked by movement, adaptation and shifting soil. This piece uses patterns and messages of solidarity to support people facing forced displacement worldwide to showcase various visual narratives that contribute to a collective memory of resilience and survival.”
The interactive art workshop will take place at David Pecaut Square on Sun. June 9, 2024, from 1 to 10 p.m.
You’re also invited to check out “Side by Side”, our latest photo exhibit on site as David Pecaut Square throughout the festival.
Oddside Arts is a cultural arts not-for-profit and creative technology artist collective with a mandate to merge art, technology and wellness through Black speculative design. They use art as a tool and a point of access for critical discussions about accessibility, equity and coalition building.
