Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September-October 2008, page 57

Music & Arts

Swedish Artist Remembers These Children

	Artist Alejandra Lundén (l) with children interacting with her installation (Photo courtesy Alejandra Lundén).

CHILEAN-Swedish visual artist Alejandra Lundén created an art piece she called “Believing—An installation with 843 building blocks,” partly inspired by and based on Remember These Children, the booklet and Web site (<www.rememberthesechildren.
org>) established by the American Educational Trust in memory of Israeli and Palestinian children killed since the second intifada erupted in September 2000. Lundén presented the piece, her final work before graduating from the Masters Program of Art at Konstfack–The University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, in Stockholm, Sweden in 2006. It was also featured on the Swedish national TV program “Arty” in October 2006.

Lundén’s installation comprised 843 haphazardly arranged, handmade children’s building blocks, each engraved with a name, year of birth and year of death. Each block represents a child who has died as a result of the conflict between Israel and Palestine since Sept. 29, 2000. By encouraging playful interaction of both children and adults, the artist hopes that her installation will stimulate thoughts about how we build relationships, memories and societies.

”Believing—An installation with 843 building blocks” is now presented in ”Loss,” the current annual art exhibition at The Wanås Foundation in the south of Sweden. The exhibition will be on view until Oct. 19. Sadly, Lundén had to update the piece to include additional child-victims. By the end of the exhibition at Wanås, her piece will include 1,102 building blocks. For more information see: <www.alejandralunden.com> and <www.wipsthlm.se>.

—Delinda C. Hanley