VIRTUAL ART GALLERY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. WAVEFORM, ROMANIA
Visual art gallery WaveforMe is an international online exhibition area dedicated to the young people with hearing impairments
VAR Cultural Association (Romania), with a wide experience in implementing and developing projects with a strong socio-cultural character, has launched, this year in February, the first international project WaveforMe dedicated to promoting the creative potential of the youth with hearing impairments, cochlear implant/ hearing aids.
WaveforMe develops on 3 directions and in different stages: social (podcasts with hearing – impaired adult guests from Romania and abroad who work in various cultural fields), educational (workshops) and cultural (a visual art gallery- an exhibition area dedicated to the youth with hearing impairments in the country and abroad).
The WaveforMe virtual art gallery was launched on the 1st of June with an international group exhibition – available for free: https://waveforme.org/en/
“Hearing loss is NOT invisible” states one of the 40 hearing impaired young people who took part in the project titled WaveforMe, organized by VAR- an exhibition featuring photography, drawing and objects. The creators are aged between 12 and 27 and they are from Iran, India, Ukraine, the USA, Philippines and Romania and they founded-without realising it- a distinct artistic community which is not formed around their disability but the common topics, being preoccupied similarly by their wish to inclusion, and by the issues adapted to their age group: their family, the close friends, their first love, nature, hobbies, but also interests which can become professions. Being isolated, discriminated and bullied made them become reclusive, unconfident and without a bright perspective.
WaveforMe managed to inculcate the youngsters the wish to belong to a group with the same artistic goals and same personal generational aspirations. There are extremely moving works that express the simple joy of being able to hear -thanks to the cochlear implant or the hearing aid- “It Feels Good to Hear” is the title of one of the works created by a young Iranian. The recounts are alike, the pain is shared. The feelings and the approaches are similar as well. You can see drawings representing David by Michelangelo wearing a hearing aid device or portraits of kids happy to be able to finally hear again.
Even if sometimes the differences between the participants are major, the diversity make this exhibition to be not only a remembrance of the ones close to us who have the same hopes, dreams and desires even if they lack one of the senses, but a great example of resilience, ambition and the pleasure of doing what you enjoy no matter the circumstances of the contingencies.
We can undoubtedly say that the visual language can build complex systems of refined and sensitive links between worlds hard to put together, can encourage and heal, and most importantly can turn hope into a palpable and possible way. – Andreiana Mihail
We encourage young people all over to join us, participating with artwork, the WaveforMe platform being an open and constantly improving area.
This year in July there will be an itinerant exhibition with a selection of works exhibited in the virtual gallery, contributions created during the visual art workshop that will artistically summarize the whole project. It will be opened for the public in four cities of Romania: Sibiu, Timișoara, Iași and Bucharest, where members of the hearing impairments community, experts in the educational, socio- cultural and medical field will be invited.
The evolution of the whole project can be followed on the facebook WaveforMe page and on instagram, where you can find us as waveforme.var.
* Cultural project, co-funded by The National Administration of Cultural Fund
**The project does not necessarily represent the position of The National Administration of Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the project’s content or the way the results of the project can be used. They are entirely the beneficiary of the funding sole responsibility.
Parteners: The National Association of People with Hearing Impairments from Romania- “Listen to Life”, “The European Federation of Parents of Hearing Impaired Children” (FEPEDA), “Audiosofia” Association, “The Immigration Research” Forum (IRF), Washington D.C., “Koala Auditive and Verbal Reabilitation” Association, Aures Foundation, ASTRA County Library- Sibiu, Hermes Association for contemporary Art (Calpe Gallery)- Timisoara, National Museum Centre “Moldova”- Iasi, ATELIER 030202″ Gallery– Bucharest, B-Critic, FM Bucharest, IQads, Modernism, Propagarta, the magazine “Culture”, Radio Romania Cultural, Viva FM
1 June 2022