The meeting, organized by the Dhillon Marty Foundation, comprises a range of events aimed at highlighting civic engagement and getting people to support sustainable solutions to social problems. It was launched June 16 in France with the distribution of Empreinte Civique, a daily newspaper being published and distributed across 15 countries until June 30.
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| Sonia Dhillon Marty |
According to
Sonia Dhillon Marty, the India-born president of the foundation, only the
development of critical thinking and common civic values will help humankind to
deal with the future, especially in the face of seemingly unstoppable technological
changes.
“Democracy
needs engaged and thoughtful citizens. Our mission is to build
critical thinkers who are passionately engaged to defend a fair and just
society,” she said.
A former
business-development professional at tech company Cisco Systems, Dhillon
Marty says she is concerned about getting youth involved in discussions about
sustainability, especially as regards the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs).
Her aim is to
bring together artists, academics, experts from various disciplines, and
young people to “investigate sustainable solutions for our interconnected
world”.
In partnership
with CIDJ (Centre d’Information et de Documentation de la Jeunesse) and
UNESCO’s MOST program (Management of Social Transformations), the Dhillon Marty
Foundation has widened its scope this year for a greater appeal to community
involvement. The diverse events will bring together “social practice” art and
dialogue on contemporary global issues.
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| Members of the Dhillon Marty team. |
Each program
provides an “egalitarian approach to the current social challenges and explores
how a holistic solution, beneficial to everyone, can be possible”, Dhillon
Marty said.
Subtitled
“#ShareYourHumanity” (last year’s winning phrase from a global competition), the
2018 event features a street art performance on June 18 at a store in northern
Paris. Artists will use mattresses to produce art, as a means of
emphasizing that the well-being of the individual and the community go hand in
hand, Dhillon Marty told SWAN.
The following
day, June 19, the foundation hosts a “Garden Share” and Japanese tea ceremony,
with participants exchanging views on sustainable food production. The focus
here is on how each person can contribute to “seeding” quality food and life.
Other
activities include a “Social Movement” dance performance and a street cleaning,
or “Soji”, initiative - inspired by the Japanese practice of cleaning communal
spaces. The latter will take place on June 22, at Place de la République, in Paris.
These
social-practice art programs will be followed by panel debates and discussions
June 26 to June 29, on topics such as inclusive community action, the economics
of technology, and democracy and governance. The annual competition to select
the “Phrase of the Year”, from submissions by young people around the world,
will take place June 28.
A more physical
activity - a run for gender justice - is scheduled to close out this year’s
conference. The “#JustRunParis” event “represents the struggle for advancement
in quality of life and work undertaken by courageous and tireless women to
build a world of more possibilities,” Dhillon Marty said. The route will
include different locations in Paris where “pioneering, trailblazing women have
changed history and keep inspiring generations”, she added.
After the run,
participants will come together for a “Lungar” - a picnic where everyone will
prepare, serve, and enjoy food in a “bonding experience”, as in the Sikh
tradition of India.
For further
details on the conference program, please go to: http://www.dhillonmarty.org and @dhillonmarty. Due to limited seating,
registration is required for all programs.
