SECRETARY-GENERAL PRAISES "BRILLIANT, INSPIRING" WORK AT MILLENNIUM ART EXHIBIT

Press Release
SG/SM/7492

SECRETARY-GENERAL PRAISES ‘BRILLIANT, INSPIRING’ WORK AT MILLENNIUM ART EXHIBIT

(Delayed in transmission.)

Following is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s remarks at a private viewing of the United Nations Millennium art exhibition, delivered on Thursday, 20 July:

Thank you, Jeremy [Greenstock, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations], for those kind words.

I was greatly impressed by the idea of this exhibition when I first heard about it a year ago. But what I see here tonight goes beyond my expectations.

I expected that the exhibition would show how the universal language of art can cross boundaries, bringing nations and people together. And it does.

What I did not imagine was how much it would tell us about the world we live in -- about the hopes and fears of all its people. In fact, the themes chosen by the artists are like a mirror of all the challenges faced by the United Nations.

Some of the paintings depict the plight of children living in extreme poverty. Others remind us of the damage we are doing to our common home, the earth. Others again are more cheerful: they celebrate the wonderful diversity of the human race and its many cultures.

But all of them, I think, express a common desire to make the world a better place. And that, of course, is what the United Nations is all about.

So we all owe a big "thank you" to the organizers -- Winsor & Newton and Sheeran Lock -- for making this exhibition such a success, and especially for their generosity in making the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) the beneficiary of all the funds that it will raise.

I am very glad, too, that six of these marvellous paintings are being reproduced as United Nations Millennium stamps.

We must also thank Mr. Pleune [Managing Director, Winsor & Newton], as well as Jeremy and Anne Greenstock, for inviting us all to this splendid reception and private view.

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But most of all, we must thank the artists for their brilliant and inspiring work. It cannot have been at all easy for the jury to choose the prizewinners, but what is certain is that all of them fully deserve their success. Congratulations especially to the overall winner, Ramón Piaguaje, from Ecuador.

Mr. Piaguaje, you have touched us all with your wonderful painting of untouched nature in your homeland, the Amazon rainforest. I was also deeply touched when I read in the catalogue that you want to deliver a message to the rest of the world about the importance of keeping this "lung of the world" free from pollution and destruction, and that, for you, to see a tree fall is like seeing a loved one die.

You have given us all a very important challenge, and a wonderful gift. This souvenir of the United Nations is a very small "thank you". I know that the only way we can really thank you is by rising to your challenge and saving the forest from destruction. If we do that, we will not only be helping you and your people, but also helping to preserve the diversity of species for the whole planet -- one of the greatest treasures that we hold in trust for future generations.

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