The Journey / Traces of Stories exhibition has arrived in Brno and on the Czech Television news.
Not knowing where to go or for how long. Just walking. This is the reality faced by hundreds of Ukrainian children who had to leave their homes due to the war. Their authentic stories are the focus of the exhibition The Journey / Traces of Stories, which opened on August 5th at the Jiří Mahen Library in Brno. After Prague and Zlín, this is the third stop for our exhibition this year. The opening was also covered by an extensive report by Czech Television.
The main motif of the exhibition is 26 pairs of shoes in which children arrived in the Czech Republic. Each pair is accompanied by a text transcribing the child's authentic story. The children's shoes symbolize the journey to a new home and serve as a reminder of the hardships and challenges that the children and their families had to face.
"A library is a place for sharing stories. They aren't always happy, but that is exactly why it is important to understand them," explains the library director, Libuše Nivnická.
This specific exhibition was created in collaboration with the Jiří Mahen Library in Brno, where it will be open to visitors from August 5th to September 15th.
"This is the second exhibition in my career as an artist at the library that has moved me to tears," adds Tereza Golková, a library employee who helped install the exhibition.
The opening of the exhibition was also the subject of an extensive report on the ČT24 broadcast. It included the question: "If the exhibition were to send a signal, what should it be?" Our colleague Timea Horváthová answered: "We are all equal. And I think that in the most difficult situations, such as the war in Ukraine, we should be even more united, empathetic, and helpful to others."
In the autumn, the exhibition will head to Teplice, where it will conclude its own traveling journey. The exhibition The Journey / Traces of Stories is part of the We Are Not Strangers project, which strives to bring Czech society and foreigners closer together.
The We Are Not Strangers project is co-financed by the European Union from the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF).
