Indian, French artists battle against human trafficking

A painting by an Indian artist on display at an exhibition organised to raise awareness about human trafficking at the Alliance Francaise in New Delhi on Saturday. — PTI

Inspired by the 2011 documentary Not My Life, which depicts human trafficking and modern slavery on a global scale, two artists one each from India and France have put up an exhibition here to raise awareness about the issue.

The show titled “Not My Life: Artists Respond”, builds on the film by Oscar-nominated Robert Bilheimer who has shot the documentary in a dozen countries across five continents.

While Indian artist Kanchan Chander has brought out a collection of artworks since 1978, the French artist Dominique Gribot Carroz has created works using recycled materials and waste.

“My collection is from 1978 onwards and focuses on human trafficking and girl child abuse. So when Dominique decided to do an art exhibition I pulled out my collection,” says Ms Chander, who has been a painter since the past four decades.

The show also features acrylic paintings created by Ms Chander. She has titled “Live and Let Live”, which narrates the story of rebellion of a woman who has faced human trafficking.

“The exhibition is just an attempt to raise awareness amongst people so that more people come forward. The paintings talk about physic of a woman after she goes through abuses and atrocities and human trafficking,” says Ms Chander.

French artist Dominique Gribot Carroz termed human trafficking to be a global phenomenon and a vexatious problem which needs to be addressed with the policy makers demanding hard and lasting solutions to curb the malice.

“What’s difficult is that it is a global phenomenon. Look at the immigration flows into Europe where several children enter without passports. There are thousands of traffickers who pull these children into atrocious acts,” says Mr Carroz.

“Being aware about this malice is not sufficient because the numbers globally are massive so the magnitude of this problem should be more talked about, and if we keep pushing it the decision makers will surely react more aggressively to the problem,” Mr Dominique added.

The art exhibition features certain sections expressing myriads emotions of women facing human trafficking. Different faction on the art walls convey hard-hitting messages and comprises a story to be told.

Other than the section “Live and Let Live” 2015, the walls at the Alliance Francaise the venue for the exhibition have been crowded with different forms of paintings titled “Torn Lives” made from charcoal, pastels and waste by Dominique and a series titled “Torso Landscape” made in acrylics and preserved from 1996.

Another piece of art focusing particularly on child trafficking and titled “Exploited Children, Look what they think of us” by Carroz has been created from junk and recycled materials.

“The Devil Men” made with a woodcut technique and preserved since 1979 along with a series themed “If my flowers could be pink” catches the attention of the spectator and asks several perplexing questions concerning human trafficking.

The exhibition is set to be on view till November 30 for the audience with a special screening of the film Not My Life on November 29.