Welcome to Spotlight.
I’m Liz Waid.
And I’m Robin Basselin.
Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting.
It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
It is a normal Monday morning in Nairobi, Kenya.
It is the beginning of a new work week.
The streets are busy with traffic.
Public transport stations are full of people.
But on this particular Monday morning, there is more color than usual.
At Nairobi’s central bus station, a large group of men and women carry many brightly
colored yellow balloons.
They offer the balloons to people travelling to work.
People see the balloons and smile.
Soon many more individuals are carrying yellow balloons.
Some of the people holding a balloon get on the buses.
Others begin walking.
Slowly, the balloons spread around the city as people continue on their way to work.
These yellow balloons are part of an art project called Monday Morning.
Today’s Spotlight is on this living art project.
Yazmany Arboleda is an artist from New York City.
He uses art to examine cultural issues.
His art projects ask many questions about society, politics and morality.
Arboleda believes that artwork is more than just something to look at.
So he presents his art projects in interesting ways.
In 2011, Arboleda launched a new art project.
He called it Monday Morning.
He knew that many people around the world do not like Mondays.
Monday is the beginning of a new work week.
It represents the end of the weekend - the end of people’s time off of work.
He told the magazine UP: Nairobi’s Urban Perspective, that he got the idea for Monday
Morning while working in India.
“I was sitting on the grass thinking.
Then an idea came to me.
Parties usually mark our happiest times in life.
And what is the one element that symbolizes parties?
A balloon.
Combine that symbol with the usual negative feelings surrounding Monday mornings.
This was the perfect way to make art with a positive influence.”
Arboleda wanted his art to change how people felt about Monday morning.
He decided to do the art project in seven different countries.
In each country, he would make one Monday morning feel like a party.
He wrote about his plan in the Huffington Post.
“My "party" would include as many people as possible.
My first interest as an artist is how people physically relate with art.
So, I decided to give out 10,000 brightly colored balloons on a Monday morning.
I would do this in the transportation center of a city.
And I would do this in cities around the world.
I would give a balloon to each person going to work.
And I would ask them to hold it until he or she got to work.”
Arboleda has now launched the Monday Morning art project in three countries: India, Japan,
and Kenya.
Before each project, Arboleda stayed in each particular country for weeks or even months.
He learned what it was like to live in that country.
And he tried to make each project fit the particular country.
For each country, Arboleda chose a different balloon color.
He chose the color he believed best represented the country.
In India he used orange balloons.
To Arboleda, orange represented the spices Indian cooks used to add taste to food.
In Japan he used green balloons.
The color green represented Japan’s success in developing green technology - or technology
that is good for the environment.
And for Kenya, Arboleda chose the color yellow.
This was because he loved the golden, Kenyan sun.
In each country, Arboleda also organized a large group of people to help him.
On the day of the art project, this group of people met at the city’s transport center.
Together, they brought 10,000 balloons.
They gave one or a few balloons to thousands of individuals on their way to work.
Slowly, the balloons spread all around the city.
As more people saw the balloons, more people’s mornings were affected.
Arboleda believes that the Monday Morning experience gives workers a positive start
to their day.
He also believes it helps people think about how life and work relate to each other.
He told the Japan Times,
“Balloons symbolize celebration.
They make us remember happy times in our lives.
The clash of the expected with the unexpected creates interesting connections.
These connections cause people to question established ways of understanding things...This
art piece opens up discussions about what we think and feel about work.
There is a difference between the repeated nature of work and the playfulness of a balloon
– or thousands of them moving through a city.
This difference fills the art piece with the ability to shake the established understanding
of a 'Monday Morning'."
In Kenya, the Monday Morning project did just what Arboleda hoped.
On Novemeber 7, 2011, Miriam Muthoni was on her way to work in Nairobi.
Suddenly, someone gave her a gift of balloons.
The gift surprised her.
She told the Huffington Post news organization,
"I feel it has given me the energy to work.
It may be a blessing.”
But Arboleda wanted to do more than just explore established social ideas about work.
He also wanted to change how people think about and define art.
He told the BBC,
"We are celebrating the people as they go to work.
And we are explaining that art is not just a photograph or a sculpture or a painting.
It is also a planned movement of balloons as they spread through a whole city."
The Monday Morning project had even greater meaning in Kenya.
While Arboleda was planning and organizing people for the event, terrorists announced
that they were going to attack the city of Nairobi.
And on Monday, October 24, there were two bomb attacks in Nairobi.
One of these attacks happened at a bus stop.
After this, many Kenyans were afraid to ride the buses again.
However, they still needed to go to work.
So Arboleda kept his plans to perform the Monday Morning art project.
On November 7 - two weeks after the bomb attacks - he filled Nairobi with balloons.
This act gave people balloons, but also a new hope.
To them, the balloons were a sign of peace after the terrorist bombings.
Arboleda told the Huffington Post,
"I think fear creates negative energy.
This needs to be opposed by something beautiful and colourful - something that speaks to the
heart of the people and beauty.
And I think that is what art is about."
The writer of this program was Courtney Schutt.
The producer was Mark Drenth.
The voices you heard were from the United States and the United Kingdom.
All quotes were adapted and voiced by Spotlight.
You can find our programs on the internet at www.radioenglish.net.
This program is called “Monday Morning Art.”
We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program.
Goodbye.