Children

Isabel Muñoz, 2009 winner of the Bellas ArtesGold Medal award, focuses on these children,turning individuals into archetypes, transcendingday-to-day reality to convert her subjects intouniversal icons that represent both a phase in ourlives and the future of Humanity that we have aduty to protect. This exhibition, organised jointly by UNICEFand the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, incollaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairsand Cooperation, is based on an original idea ofthe El País Semanal magazine to celebrate the20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rightsof the Child: a portrait of childhood in imagesand words, in photos taken by Isabel Muñozand articles written by five journalists for the ElPaís Sunday magazine. They travelled with UNICEF to twenty countries,and met up with around a hundred childrenand young people. Using what they saw andexperienced, they produced ‘Nuestro pequeñomundo’ (Our Small World), a single-theme issuefor El País Semanal Sunday magazine on 15November 2009: twenty stories reflecting thesituation of children around the world at thestart of this 21st century, in respect of their rightsenshrined in the principles contained within theConvention on the Rights of the Child. More than 70 people from UNICEF and nineteenassociate NGOs have taken part in the project,which would not have been possible without theinvolvement of the children and their families ineach and every one of the countries visited. Manuel Blanco, Curator of Childhood, hasdesigned an installation using IsabelMuñoz´s photos in which the children,standing in space, come to life and mixwith the public, establishing a connectionwith visitors to involve them in their storieswhile explaining the rights that shouldprotect them. This exhibition intertwines their personalstories with the rights protected by theConvention, reflecting the work of UNICEF,the United Nations Children’s Fund, inpartnership with governments and publicand private entities, to improve the livingconditions and future opportunities of childrenand young people. UNICEF is the United NationsChildren´s Fund, whose aim is toestablish children´s rights as enduringethical principles and internationalstandards of behaviour towardschildren, accepted as an integralpart of the progress of Humanity.Created in 1946, UNICEF´s mission isto guarantee the rights of all childreneverywhere and in any situation. UNICEF Spain celebrates this year its50th anniversary working to achievereal changes in the lives of millionsof children, through the promotion ofchildren´s rights, in Spain and in therest of the world, and raising fundsto finance development programmesand respond to emergencies in morethan 150 developing countries whereUNICEF is working.