This drawing is my first examination of the site of the projection.
This is the statue,
standing on a pedestal.
That was very important for me
to imagine how the statue can be animated with a projection.
[Krzysztof Wodiczko: Monument for the Living]
People always gather in front of monuments.
There are events, protests.
Sometimes we sit on their shoulders, wave flags.
We paint them with new narrative.
Those monuments, they witnessed events before--
some of them, major events.
We want the monuments to observe and record,
monitor what we do today,
again.
For so many years, I've been trying to give a voice,
or amplify the voice that is not heard,
or even silenced. --I saw many dead or dying children.
--It was horrible.
--They jumped in, not knowing that it was poisoned, not knowing it was radiated.
There are more than seventy million refugees,
people who are forced to leave their home countries
because those countries are engaged in wars--
mostly civil wars.
In Madison Square Park, there are four other monuments.
This one is the most prominent.
And this one is definitely related to the Civil War.
We don't really have monuments to refugees.
[VOICE FROM THE PROJECTION] --I left my parents.
--I left my mom,
--and my siblings,
--without even saying goodbye.
--I left the way you see me.
[ANOTHER VOICE FROM THE PROJECTION] --So ten years, we were in the situation
--of sleeping in a tent,
--waking up,
--feeling afraid the entire day,
--and not being able to do anything with your life.
[ANOTHER VOICE FROM THE PROJECTION] --It was torture.
--There was no hope for better life.
--Nineteen years of my youth, my life, was taken away.
[WODICZKO] To actually see a refugee speaking,
it's a very rare opportunity for the public.
[VOICE FROM THE PROJECTION] --It was hard for me, leaving my child.
--If anyone can imagine leaving a child behind...
--I don't think anyone would imagine leaving their child behind for even a day or two.
--I have to leave my child behind me for ten years.
--Ten years!
[WODICZKO] In order to live with such traumatic memories,
speaking, communicating it with others,
it's very important.
For those who work with trauma,
they know very well that there is nothing more painful
than the overwhelming experience that is not communicated and shared.
Once it's shared,
it opens the path to healthier life with traumatic memories.
So this is my general approach towards monuments.
We have to help them to be useful for the living,
making them relevant to us
so we can build a future--
the better future--
maybe the future in which some of those monuments,
like war memorials,
will never need to be built,
because there will be no wars
and no refugees.