Drawing Festival Invites Participants to Think Together

A free online festival will use drawings, strings, knots and puppet simulations to open conversations about human rights. Organized by Amnesty International Türkiye’s Human Rights Education Programme, the Drawing Festival will take place on Sept. 5-6.

The event brings together six workshops created by participants in the Amnesty Creative Fellows: Art for Rights programme. Their subjects range from care work and the right to the city to bodies in public spaces, climate justice, technology, workplace rights and intergenerational justice. The festival aims to create a space for thinking collectively about boundaries, transitions, solidarity and new possibilities.

On Sept. 5, participants can join “Being Seen: The Body in Public,” “Who Builds the Future?” and “Beyond Invisible Strings.” The first workshop asks who is truly visible in public spaces and whose experiences, bodies and stories remain unseen. Participants will discuss visibility through their own experiences and use drawing to bring overlooked experiences into view, considering both their social and rights-based dimensions.

“Beyond Invisible Strings” will explore the small, hidden zones of power woven into everyday life. Through puppet simulations, participants will experience power dynamics and discuss their everyday counterparts. They will then develop an “Alliance Manifesto” while exploring ways to defend personal space and free themselves from invisible constraints.

The Sept. 6 programme includes workshops on workplace rights and boundaries, care work and sharing the burden, and feeling safe in the city. “Invisible Knots” will use strings, knots and drawings to make domestic care work and unseen burdens visible. “The Cityless: Feeling Safe in the City” will question how cities work for different people and discuss possibilities for more inclusive urban spaces. The remaining workshop, “Who Builds the Future?”, focuses on the climate crisis, technology and justice between generations.