The Child Centre - Gaza (CCG)/AMQF organized a three-day art workshop on the “Making of Animation Movies”, led by Belgian trainer and animation expert Aline Moens, with the participation of trainer Michèle Vanvlasselaer. The event was held within the framework of the art project “Messages from Gaza”, which consists of a group of children from CCG (from The Young Painter Club) elaborating an imagined story and capturing its scenes to produce an animated video. Next, children from Brussels are planned to do a ‘musical interpretation’ of the scenes created by the Gazan children, in collaboration with musicians Alaa Shiblaq and Ayman Maghamis.
About her participation at the workshop, Tasnim Ahel (12 years old) said, “We drew lines that formed the city. We considered the ‘home’ as a symbol of safety during peacetime, and as a sign of wartime when absent. We represented the state of war with a ‘monster’ that destroyed the city.”
Fahd Shihab (13 years old), who also participated at the workshop, explained that the challenge lay in the rebuilding of the city into a better shape after it had been destroyed. “We started rebuilding the city with paintings, decorations and scatterings of roses, butterflies and balloons – all symbols of hope, life and rebirth," added Shihab.
Another child participant, Sarah Saqqa, explained, “The city was alive again and it was time for us to be strong and live better lives, in love and hope”. Zubaida Samra, another workshop participant that was capturing the scenes drawn by the children, agreed with Saqqa. She added, “I understand now that every centimetre represents one image or scene. Up until now, we have created 713 lines, so 713 scenes… and counting”.
The workshop ran from 13-16 July 2017, and the animated video is expected to be completed in November this year.
This is the second workshop led by Vanvlasselaer at CCG. The first workshop was held under the Glazza project (a portmanteau of the words ‘Gaza’ and ‘Glass’) and focused on art around recycling – mainly consisting of producing photographs of empty plastic bottles in an aesthetic manner that reflects a state reminiscent of the sea.