“Painting is not made to decorate apartments. It’s an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy”.

Pablo Picasso

Our planet is in danger and calls for its salvation. Art and culture are our dominant weapons. For what other way is there to arouse environmental awareness if not with colours and shapes? After all, it’s a matter of aesthetics.

Have you ever examined your children’s paintings? There is always a bright sun, tall, green trees and colourful flowers. It’s common for them to depict a clean, pure and happy environment; as it should be. Maybe they are trying to tell us something. Through their art we see the perfection of nature; a nature that prospers and at the same time lies at risk by us humans. Perhaps this happens because we often forget that WE are nature. We can’t be detached from it. So if we have lost our connection with nature, then, we have actually lost connection with ourselves (Andy Goldsworthy).

This year, Aigaia’s young artists are determined to trigger our awareness through their artwork. Beginning with a retrospect to the onset of the planet, they observe the present and the ways human has contributed to nature’s alterations and they finally suggest their own solutions for an ideal future world. They stimulate us to work collectively and maybe teach us how to love our planet without destroying it.