Austrian Cultural Forum New York supported an interactive project “Gold Hands for Democracy", performed by Austrian-American visual artist Nicola Ginzel in front of the Ukrainian Institute of America.
Nicola Ginzel (whom some may know from the UN/MUTE exhibition) collected gold handprints from passersby who wished to show their solidarity with Ukraine. The project’s intention is to illuminate the positive traits of humanity by using the symbol of a hand as a catalyst. As the first expression of mankind—what binds us together as one species—petroglyphs of handprints date back to prehistoric caves in Sulawesi, Indonesia, and El Castillo, Spain, and according to the Bradshaw Foundation working in collaboration with UNESCO, the National Geographical Society and others, handprints are the most common elements of rock art and may vary in meaning.
Nicola gathered gold handprints before, as a response to the events leading to war in Iraq in 2003 and her initiative was very well received (over six weeks, she was able to collect ca. 700 handprints). You can see the touching results of this previous project on Nicola’s website.
Photo credit © Lena Maier-Maidl/ACFNY
