The Paper Airplane Project

Facilitator: Baptist Coelho
NGOs: Aangan Trust, Aseema, Doorstep School, Salaam Balak, Meljol, Mumbai Mobile Crèches, and Yuva Unstoppable

June 16 to 18, 2008 |10.00 am to 2.00 pm
Bombay YMCA Hall, Mumbai

The Paper Airplane Project is a workshop that engages children to explore their creativity, collaborate and provide an introduction to process-based art. Coelho uses the construction of paper airplanes as a communication tool for children to express themselves, while visualizing their dreams and aspirations. In the process, the artist also encourages the children to delve into new ideas about creative play. This project was developed from Coelho’s installation entitled, re(wind), 2006*. This experience culminated in a final performance where children flew their paper airplanes and then attached them on a wall, called the ‘Wall of Dreams’.

Baptist Coelho is an artist working with photography, video, sculptural installations and performance. His focus has been to articulate unspoken stories and to conjure meaning from psychological and physical disruptions caused by war. Through a process of archival and ethnographic research, and engagement with military and civilian personnel, he investigates issues surrounding conflict, war (and war museums), conscription, heroism, emotion, fear, the body and gender, and explores their complex interconnections.