In 2004, Exhibition Coexistence traveled to Washington, D.C., and was displayed at the reflecting pool facing the U.
S. Capitol Building. "Imagine there's no countries / It isn't hard to do / Nothing to kill or die for / And no religion too / Imagine all the people / Living life in peace.
" In his hit song "Imagine," John Lennon beckoned the world to come together and live as one, a message many leading thinkers, philosophers, writers and artists have conveyed over the years. Sadly, conflict still exists around the world. There's still daily violence and terrorism against innocent people.
Billions of people live under the poverty line, armed religious conflicts surge, millions of refugees wander. Exhibition Coexistence, a traveling outdoor exhibit created by the Museum on the Seam in Jerusalem, "brings the universal message of diversity and acceptance of the other to the world community." Billboard-sized murals (9-by-15 feet), created by artists around the world, project striking visual images of the need for greater tolerance.
Each visual image is paired with a text panel, in four languages, with quotes from those many inspiring leading thinkers, philosophers, writers and artists that have hoped for peaceful existence. One mural shows a close-up of an African-American's hands interlocking with those of a white person, accompanied by a selection from Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.
Another features two men, one dressed in red and the other in blue, looking in opposite directions but casting one giant shadow that faces forward. The image is accompanied by words of American political philosopher John Rawls, explaining how aristocratic and caste societies are unjust. Other leading figures whose words are paired with these powerful images include Nelson Mandela, Eleanor Roosevelt, Charles Darwin and Maya Angelou.
The exhibition will be on view in New Brunswick April 28 through May 20, and serve as a centerpiece for a three-week festival of performing, visual and cultural arts events. Spearheaded by the New Brunswick Community Arts Council, the organization hopes to hold a Coexistence Festival annually in the city. Nearly 50 exhibition panels will be placed in the downtown area, including Vorhees Mall, Old Queens on Rutgers' College Avenue campus, Johnson Johnson world headquarters grounds and on The Hyatt property.
"It's our hope that the installation, the size and scope of it, will obviously draw people's attention and serve as a catalyst for dialogue," says Marshall Jones, Arts Council board member and professor of theater arts at Rutgers. "It's the starting point without conversations you can't have coexistence, you won't exist. "We hope to serve as a catalyst for that first," he adds, "so who knows what comes next.
Let's hope it increases understanding and appreciation of the other." Mr. Jones says the festival serves as an umbrella for existing programming in the area, but also provides the opportunity to develop programming that fits the Arts Council's mission.
One specific program the Arts Council organized is titled "My Sister," at which Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Kleinn and co-founder/Executive Director of the American Islamic Congress Zainab Al-Suwaij will speak. They will describe the dangers of prejudice and hatred and hope to teach future generations not to repeat the horrors and crimes of the past. Dr.
Dan Gottlieb, host of WHYY 91 FM's Voices in the Family, will moderate the May 1 discussion at the State Theatre. The main festival weekend will be held May 5-6, during which George Street will be shut down and talents like the Indigo Girls, Richie Havens, The Temptations Review and Tiempo Libre will give free outdoor concerts. At each stop Exhibition Coexistence makes (past visits include London, Berlin, Paris, San Paolo and Washington, D.
C.) the city is asked to hold an artist competition. The winner's mural, with a message to influence and help improve social relations, is then added to the collection.
New Jersey native David Magyar, whose image came from a series of photographs taken shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, won the New Brunswick contest. Raphie Etgar, a leading poster artist in Israel in the '80s and '90s, established the socio-political Museum on the Seam in Jerusalem in 1999.
Moved by the pressing need to bring about dialogue, understanding and existence side by side in the region, he mounts exhibits on controversial issues and topics that are on the public agenda. Mr. Etgar launched Exhibition Coexistence in 2001, and cities across the globe continually express interest in displaying the outdoor show.
"I want to believe that this exhibition will serve as a catalyst for positive thinking," Mr. Etgar writes in his curator's statement. "That it will contribute positive energy to people who will be encouraged to act with restraint, understanding and thoughtfulness to others.
Let us hope that our modest contribution to this effort will make a difference." While he says we may never know how much art contributes to the public opinion and how it influences an individual's thoughts, the exhibition is intended to highlight the art of living together. "Here we see art as a language with no boundaries," he says.
"It is, therefore, universal and it speaks to all ages, religions and nationalities." Through the exhibition, people will hopefully gain a higher appreciation of those who may seemingly be different, Mr. Jones says.
"But as those scientists who prepared the genetic map discovered, we are all 99.9 percent the same and there's only one-tenth of 1 percent that makes us different," he says. "That's scientifically huge.
I'm an African-American and my ancestors weren't even considered human. "We need to focus more on what we have in common and not that one-tenth of 1 percent," he continues. "It would be a much better world to live in.
" Coexistence Festival (featuring Exhibition Coexistence, workshops, lectures, performances and educational programs), will be held in New Brunswick April 28-May 20.
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