“The biggest problem I faced when I completed all the African figures representing the nations of the African continent was trying to get hold of a Somali language national newspaper from Somalia"

Germany, Moenchengladbach, 6 July 2007 (SL Times) - The former president of the USSR, Michail S. Gorbachev officially opened the “Global Citizen Project” exhibition by the German born artist Xenia Marita Riebe held in Moenchengladbach City Hall on 28 June 2007.

The 'Noble Peace Prize' laureate and former president of the USSR, Michail S. Gorbachev came to the opening of the “Global Citizen Project” exhibition to present a lecture on the issue of globalisation, a theme, very much at the heart of his ‘Glasnost’ years during his presidency, a policy which made the country of the Soviet Union and its government transparent and open to debate and was essential in leading up to the end of the East and West divide in central Europe and the fall of the Berlin wall.

As globalization was the main topic of Gorbachev’s lecture that night, the ‘Noble Peace Prize’ laureate showed great interest in Xenia’s “Global Citizen Project” exhibition, paying particular interest to all the figures made from newspapers of almost 200 countries.

The Global Citizen Project, the brainchild of Xenia Marita Riebe began in 2005 and in the artist’s own words was to “transform global society in its cultural variety by means of art.”

Xenia formed small figures, about 30 centimeters (just under 12inches) tall, from national newspapers from more than 200 countries obtained from all over the world. Each of the exhibition’s figures represented one country and portrayed all the nations of the world represented at the United Nations. Each nation’s figure was made out of an issue of a national newspaper printed in its home country.

Xenia, in the beginning of her ‘Global Citizen Project’ was frustrated with newspapers not responding to her requests for a copy of their paper.

Speaking to SL Times, Xenia explained, “The biggest problem I faced when I completed all the African figures representing the nations of the African continent was trying to get hold of a Somali language national newspaper from Somalia. All of my requests for a copy of Somali paper fell on deaf ears. For a while, I almost lost hope of ever getting my Somali figure and completing the African continent, when all of a sudden I received a reply from one of the many requests I made to Somali news publishers to send me a copy of their paper. Somaliland Times of Haatuf Media Network, kindly offered to send me one of their Somali papers published in Hargeysa in North Somalia/Somaliland. And this is how I got my Somali figure and completed the African continent.”

Regarding meeting Mr Gorbachev, Xenia said, “I presented Mr Gorbachev a copy of my brand new art book on the subject and also two special figures made from several different international newspapers with various scripts and languages as symbols for the modern global citizen. I also had a conversation with Irina Gorbacheva, his daughter, who wished to learn all the details of my project.”

On the night of Gorbachev’s visit to Moenchengladbach City Hall, a great number of VIPs, ministers and high government officials, the mayor, representatives of cultural institutions, economic leaders as well as artists and celebrities were present on the opening night of the ‘Global Citizen Project’. The media, too, were present in large numbers with over 3 television stations broadcasting the event, and many journalists were among the guests. The event ended with Mr Gorbachev answering questions on the topic of his lecture.

Xenia Marita Riebe's website is available at:
http://www.xenia-art.de/global/global_07.htm

Source: Somaliland Times