War/Games conference explores art's healing role for children affected by crisis - review

One of the thoughts I have heard expressed most frequently since Oct. 7 is a sense of not feeling safe even in our own country, “the Jewish homeland.” That is an unnerving sentiment for all of us but is likely most unsettling for children, especially those who have witnessed horrific acts of violence firsthand, often to people close to them.

That is one of the challenging aspects of the emotional fallout of the barbaric Hamas attack on our southern communities that will be addressed at the War/Games gathering at the Train Theater in Jerusalem on November 20.

The conference, named after late Train Theater general manager and festival artistic director Dalia Yaffa Maayan, is epexegetically subtitled “A Conference of Visual Culture for Children in Times of Crisis” with the lineup featuring a host of culture and education professionals, artists, and researchers.

The organizers say the event aims to find “a new way of thinking about childhood in times of war.” The learned participants will be asked to examine the way in which war is portrayed in the media and in the visual and material culture of children, focusing on the way children naturally relate to the war when they play.

HANOCH PIVEN is as experienced a creator as any to consult on the matter of the role of art in providing children with curative resources. The 61-year-old Uruguayan-born award-winning artist describes himself as an “illustrator, educator, and seasoned creative instigator.” 

Art to help traumatized children heal

His caricatures and illustrative contributions follow a definitively user-friendly and ecological philosophy as he collates everyday discarded objects and deftly refashions them to produce alluring, often comical, and compelling faces. His expertise has enthused editors and media consumers the world over, and his work has been published in newspapers and magazines such as Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, The Times, Der Spiegel, and Haaretz. The man is clearly someone whose opinion on children and how to involve them in healing play activities is worth heeding. 

Piven got in on the remedial act in the immediate aftermath of last year’s cataclysm. 

“I was in Barcelona (where he spends much if his time) and my flight back to Israel on October 8 was canceled,” he recalls. “I got back as couple of days later.” He came roaring out of the traps. “On the Friday I had a meeting with Design Terminal Bat Yam, which is a place that engages in social design, design that benefits society. They have a rehabilitation factory where people with psychological challenges work. They create the basic components used by the Terminal designers,” he explains. “I’d already done a few projects with them, for example with Arab and Jewish children.”

Piven quickly got to grips with utilizing his skills, and the said raw materials, for the benefit of traumatized kids here. 

“We said let’s do something big, not just workshops for children. We decided to bring materials which they could use to create things.”

The idea was to make the creative process as user-friendly as possible. “We put together a kit with all sorts of odds and ends, packaged together, which we sent out to the children. They then did something with them and sent pictures of what they had done, and we created a digital gallery so they could show others what they’d done.” That has to be a boon for any kid, especially youngsters struggling with testing emotional issues in the wake of the regional violence.

Piven and his pals quickly set off for the emotional trenches. “We distributed about 3,000 kits and then I went down to Eilat to the various hotels where evacuees were staying, people from Nir Oz and Reim. Then we went to the Dead Sea to work with the Beeri community. During that month, we worked with lots of people, including children, and heard a lot of stories.”

Those experiences, and the benefits of artistic pursuit, will feature in Piven’s address at the conference. “The artistic domain, like the play domain, is not like real life,” he notes. “When you create, or play, you can be a different person compared with everyday life.” That leaves room for therapeutic maneuver.

HANDS ON activities also help to prize children away from their addictive cell phone and computer screens. 

“There was a boy who lost many members of his family on Oct. 7. He was glued to his screen for the first 10 days and when we arrived with our raw materials he just put his screen to one side and started building a cardboard castle. That was the first thing that managed to get him away from computer games. Art has that power.”

Piven won’t be all talk on the 20th. “I am also opening an art installation at the Train Theater, which will be a kind of extension of the play kit. Children will be able to create faces and expressions on a wall using magnetized objects, made by the emotionally challenged people in Bat Yam.”

That has got to be a sorely needed winner all round.

For more information: www.traintheater.co.il/he/repertoire/