MIGRATIONS Exhibit

From 09 to 30 September 2017, the International Centre for the Picture Book in Society (ICPBS) will host an exhibition in collaboration with BIBIANA, the International House of Art for Children in Bratislava, Slovakia. The exhibition, titled MIGRATIONS, will coincide with the Biennale of Illustration in Bratislava (BIB) and its symposium.

MIGRATIONS hopes to draw attention to the plight of thousands of children and their families who are, as a result of oppressive regimes, violence or poverty, forced to migrate to safer places in the world. Artists may not be able to change regimes, influence governments or save the migrants, but they can raise awareness of a reality that has become part of the contemporary socio-political environment. As visual storytellers and communicators, we can continue to pose questions and challenge indifference through our work, at the same time highlighting the positive impact that the migration of peoples, cultures and ideas has had across the globe.

An installation of between 100 and 200 postcards (or more!) from illustrators all over the world will make up one half of the exhibition. Each of these will show a migrating bird, ‘flying’ or ‘perching’ in a room in BIBIANA. This installation will in itself emphasize that culture and ideas migrate across human borders, barriers and bans. Well-known picture book illustrators such as Isol from Argentina, Roger Mello from Brazil, Shaun Tan from Australia, Laura Carlin and Petr Horacek from the UK and Marit Törnqvist from the Netherlands have already agreed to take part.

A catalogue of the postcards will accompany the exhibition and will include a foreword by Shaun Tan, the 2011-winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. This installation will complement a series of illustrations created by the staff and selected alumni of the University of Worcester, UK, and its International Centre for the Picture Book in Society in response to the theme: Migrations.

The Brief

Illustrators are invited to send a postcard (10x15cm) with your illustration of a bird on the picture side of the card and a relevant message, phrase or thought on the theme on the message side of the card.  The bird could be representative of a real bird from your country, a fictitious bird from your culture or your own fantasy bird. The postage stamp from your country of residence and your name will indicate the flight of your artwork first to the UK, then to Bratislava and who knows … to further exhibitions thereafter.

This enterprise is supported by IBBY – the International Board on Books for Young People.

By sending and donating your postcard, you grant permission that the ICPBS may include your card in the exhibition, use your image in related publicity and publish both sides of the card in the catalogue and/or a book of the postcard exhibition. Any profits made from this publication will be donated to promoting the cause of migrants through a recognized aid organization.

By sending your postcard, you agree that the original postcard will become the property of the ICPBS after its use in the exhibition MIGRATIONS in Bratislava, Slovakia in 2017 and could either be kept in a permanent collection or auctioned and all proceeds from any sales will be donated to the agreed refugee charity. A form giving permission for such use can be downloaded here. Please sign and return a digital copy to Piet Grobler at: pietgrobler123@gmail.com

Please send your bird-card to arrive by 15 June 2017 to:

MIGRATIONS exhibition
Taz Lovejoy
Digital Arts Centre
University of Worcester
Henwick Grove
Worcester
WR2 6AJ
United Kingdom

About the International Centre for the Picture Book in Society

The ICPBS aims

• to engage with the making and study of the picture book in its broadest sense (children’s books, comics, hand made books, zines and educational books, e-book, graphic novels);

• to engage with society in its broadest terms by promoting multi-culturalism, inclusivity of minorities and socially disenfranchised people;

• to create an awareness in the UK of international picture book making outside the
Anglophone environment and a platform to promote and showcase internationally
published picture books.