Wings of change

MUNDU’s volunteer Maja Kjaergaard is sharing her thoughts and reflections from the Bridge 47 GCE event december 1, 2020.

A cold grey Day

There is a fine drizzle as I bike up the steep hill. The sky is dark and grey, and it is cold. Very cold. I arrive at VIA University a little before 8 and immediately spot Liva. She has already set up her huge canvas against the wall of the university building, right next to the entry.

Liva is an artist and theatre painter, and today she is painting wings for sustainable development. MUNDU hired her as part of our ‘wings for change’-campaign. Here, we invite visitors to take photos in front of the wings and share them on social media alongside descriptions of their own sustainable practices. A few days ago, an artist from Burkina Faso did the same thing (see photos here), and we shall screen a video of the process in VIA’s canteen today.

Surrounding Liva and the canvas are cans and cans of paint, and Liva herself is wearing overalls so covered in paint that the original colour is hardly discernible. It is a breath of fresh air against the December grey.

The artistic process

After a cup of thermos coffee, she begins the process. I had worried she’d get too cold from spending the entire day outside, but I quickly realise that this will not be a problem. Liva is constantly moving around; climbing a ladder to reach the top of the canvas, lying down to get to the bottom edges, and moving away to appease her progress. Once in a while she does a little dance to the music sounding from her speakers. It feels a lot like magic to see the wings slowly emerge. From rough black outlines and fluttery strokes of white to light green feathers and patterns of blue and lilac. At the core of the wings, is a wheel of colours resembling the symbol of the sustainable development goals (the SDGs).

Audience and filming

While Liva is creating magic, I pass out flyers describing the project to curious passersby. From time to time, I enter the building to speak to the people who (not so) discreetly press their faces against glass windows, as they try to get a glimpse of the wings from the cosy warmth of inside.

Meanwhile, our film photographer, Mikkel, is circulating Liva to capture the entire process from every angle. The plan is to later edit and release several videos from the day. After a few hours, Mikkel asks Liva if maybe, possibly he might also add a stroke of paint? “Of course,” she says, and he shakily touches just the tip of the brush to the canvas. Both Liva and I laugh and encourage him to do it properly, and so he tries again and leaves his own mark on the piece. And, as we all know, the SDGs are all about partnerships and collaboration!

A Lion King Moment

As the day comes to an end, and the wings take their final – and, in my own completely unbiased opinion, glorious – form, my good friend arrives to see what we’re up to. She has brought along her 2 months old baby, Bjørn. And so we inaugurate the wings, as we take the first photo in front of them: In a pose resembling the one from the Lion King, my friend kneels down while lifting Bjørn up, so he fluctuates perfectly with the wings. The later post on social media reads: “He is an SDGangel because … He is a vegetarian”!

The story behind

The campaign “Wings for Change” was launched at VIA University College, Campus N where artist Liva Hinnerfeldt painted a set of wings near the entrance of the campus. The wings were created in order to create more attention to the sustainable development goals and to make young people more aware of their own role.

After the wings were created, they were invited through posters and flyers to take their photos in front of the wings and to share it on social media. Here the youth can share their own personal sustainability practice while using hashtags such as #SDGbutterfly #IamSDGs and #ButterflyEffect #

Two artists in two countries

One part of the event was to involve people in Burkina Faso to do the same. So while the Danish artist was busy outside in the cold weather, a movie about her Burkinabé colleague was shown inside. In the movie Manoos from Ouagadougou could be seen painting his street-art wings (watch the movie here).

The wings will be circulated to other VIA UC campuses in the early months of January. The second corona lock-down disturbed our event.

Projektet er støttet af CISUs oplysningspulje og af Bridge 47.

The event is arranged by MUNDU and Bridge47 and co-funded by the European Union.
The Bridge 47 – Building Global Citizenship – project wants to mobilise global civil society to contribute effectively to global justice and eradication of poverty through global citizenship. The project is funded by the EU and has 14 project partners around Europe and the world.