FRIEDENSBILDSTRASSE - WEG INS LICHT "The Street of Peace Pictures - Journey into Light" It began with a theatre piece. A play about children of war. "Fly, Junebug..." was the name of the 1994 production of Karoline Koczan with music from Katrin Schüler Sprlnggorum and Martina Cizek. The photographer Renée Kellner brought a glimpse of the present times in the refugee camp St.Gabriel - a glimpse of faces, expressions, refugee children captured on photographs that show more than a cursory glance could ever catch. This project, theatre and accompanying exhibit, has received attention at home and abroad. Rather than file the photos away in archives to be poured over in the future, Renée Kellner sent the photos on a "journey into the light". At first the photos were sent to churches and parishes, the traditional asylum of the homeless and persecuted, with the request to guard the pictures. The artist hoped thus to generate awareness for a peace initiative. If war is on-going, the awareness of peace must be as tenacious. The initiative was formally launched in the Virgilkapelle. As the director noted in his opening speech, "Culture is here and now..." school children donated their pocket money, foregoing their rations of gum and candy children rehearsed a theatre piece in their spare time some wrote essays on peace Bosnian musicians travelled from Linz to Vienna to perform in a benefit concert Austrian artists donated their talents in benefit concerts and events performing artists organised workshops for children therapists led discussion groups entrepreneurs made the "Street of Peace Pictures" their business festivals were organised and and and... The first goals have been achieved: Honoraria for the models in the St. Gabriel Refugee camp have been collected, and the savings passbooks will soon be handed over to the chIldren. The final goal, the creation of the "First Viennese Children´s Asylum" will be reached through the publication and sale in autumn of 1996 of an album which will capture the pictures of the "Street of Peace" all events the essays of the school children texts from adults all participants and contributors response and reaction, as well as silence The "Journey into Light" project can be seen as a global project that corresponds and echoes the travelling exhibit "Anne Frank" in which the life story of Anne Frank is told through the eyes of family members and those who lived through those times of Holocaust. The dlfference between the two approaches is that whereas the Anne Frank exhibit uses a cognitive, documentary format, the "Journey into Light" uses a much more subjective, visceral approach. Nonetheless, the motif of Bosnian refugee children in 1995 is a reminder of Anne Frank's fate. But the initiative does not stop, texts and ideas are still being created and solicited the network of peace must expand, and the publication of the book is still to be financed. Net profits will go to the establishment of the "First Viennese Children's Asylum" "Let not these children have become refugees without recourse, let them and others be helped to flee" For Information and Ideas to "Journey into Light" -The Street of Peace Pictures please contact: "Weg ins Licht" Postbox 581 A-1070 Vlenna, Austria Fax 0222/5268449 Email: a9001916@unet.univie.ac.at Bank Account for Donatlons: Bank Austria # 2391 0151 704

German-language section following: Projektbeschreibung Virtuelle Ausstellung Aktuelles Netzwerk Wegbereiter und Wegbegleiter Renée Kellner Homepage Arche - Homepage