The NOT FOR SALE performance took place in Moscow on the 18th of September 2009.
The NOT FOR SALE project was co-founded by Alicia Framis, a well known Spanish artist and Michael Lin, an artist from Taiwan, in order to attract well-needed attention to the problems of violence, exploitation and the sale of children.
This Moscow project will take place under the aegis of UNICEF. NOT FOR SALE will present a series of high-quality photographs, a performance and a ‘silent’ auction. The photographs, which Alicia made in 2007 in Thailand, depict the torsos of children with inscribed NOT FOR SALE necklaces hanging from their necks.
60 boys will participate in the project, continuing a series of performances in Madrid and Bangkok. The boys will walk along the podium, which is decorated with vibrant, multi-colored wallpaper designed by Michael Lin, proclaiming their personal independence.
Alicia Framis and Michael Lin use modern art techniques and all available sources of information in order to attract the public eye to facts which are rarely mentioned otherwise. Children are used, sold, raped and enslaved throughout the whole world.
According to the U.N. – Thailand (where Alicia came up with the idea of NOT FOR SALE) has approximately 200 thousand underage prostitutes. The NOT FOR SALE project is a manifest against consumerist treatment of humans and children in particular.
The guests of the NOT FOR SALE project will have the chance to observe a series of photographs of children, will witness the performance prepared by Russian children as well as take part in a ‘silent’ charity auction. All this will take part in the ‘Federation Tower’ on the 18th of September.
The auction lots will be - the inscribed NOT FOR SALE necklaces, created by Spanish designers such as Chas Bure, Marthe Miguel, Alberto Leonardo and Carol Salazar. All proceedings from the auction will be donated to the UNICEF fund, which renders aid to children in 157 countries one of which is Russia.
Last year the NOT FOR SALE project took place in Madrid and in September, with the invitation of GMG Gallery and with the support of U.N. UNICEF Children’s Fund, Alicia Framis and Michael Lin are introducing an additional alternative of the project in Russia. GMG GALLERY, MOSCOW