LOOK: Using art to bring to life the dreams and hopes of youngsters at the Nelson Mandela Children’s hospital
Johannesburg - Elisa Iannacone had a vision: to bring to life the dreams and hopes of young children who are confined to hospital beds with life-threatening illnesses.
So the Mexican-born photographer, film-maker and journalist, along with her team at Africa Contemporary Art, set out to bring to life the Tloong Re Bapaleng! Come, Let’s Play project.
Iannacone and her team sounded out the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital (NMCH) to bring the project to life, and in the weeks to follow began working closely with the professional staff of the NMCH.
The idea was to launch a series of art therapy sessions with five young patients at the hospital – four renal dialysis patients, who spend at least four days weekly at the hospital, and one cardiac patient.
The children would be encouraged to “just play”. To share their hopes, desires, and best of all, their current dreams: Where would you like to be? What would you like to do?
In visually articulating their dreams and fantasies into photographic environments, Iannacone and the Reach For A Dream organisation transformed the hospital beds and wards into fantasy-scapes from which the subjects rise triumphantly – on a balloon flight; at the centre of a carnival; immersed in a world filled with cakes; racing through space and time in a hospital car; or dancing like a diva in a fashion heaven.
The result: a spectacular series of photographs depicting a child fulfilling his or her dreams and hopes.
On Friday, the photographs were officially unveiled at the state-of-the-art paediatric facility, where the patients were handed the artwork.
The project was completed to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the hospital.
A state-of-the-art tertiary paediatric facility, the NMCH was a dream project for Tata Nelson Mandela.
It serves the children of southern Africa. Construction of the NMCH was completed in December 2016. The first patients were admitted in June 2017. A truly uplifting child- and family-centred organisation – architectonically and clinically – the NMCH is a non-profit and a flagship project of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.
The NMCF was established in 1995 by former president Mandela out of his love for children and a desire to end their suffering. The fund strives to change the way society treats its children and youth in order to improve their conditions and lives.
Each portrait is uplifting, enchanting, and filled with hope and vision – for both the subject (and family and the committed hospital professionals) and the viewer.