We Are City Plaza is a series of photography workshops run by the photographers Xiaofu Wang and Claude Somot at the City Plaza Hotel in Athens. These two passionate photographers have offered some fifty children the opportunity to document their lives in images.
Located in the center of Athens, City Plaza is a hotel like no other. It reemerged from a long period of neglect thanks to a group of activist who wanted to believe there are alternatives to the governmental solutions to the problem of refugee reception.
Thus, in April 2016, they threw open the doors to this derelict hotel mired in a complicated administrative situation since it had gone bankrupt. After a week of cleaning and putting things in order, the 92 rooms were made available to refugees pouring in from Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Ghana… There are over 400 people living there today, including 150 children.
Plaza offers its residents three meals a day, healthcare, a school, workshops, a cafeteria, and a hair salon; it is also the heart of the struggle for refugee rights in Greece. And in addition, Plaza is also a living space that recognizes the dignity of people who are fleeing war and poverty, and restores their hope.
We Are City Plaza
June 3 to 29, 2017
Carrefour des Arts
3, rue des Trinitaires
57000 Metz
France
http://www.tourisme-metz.com/fr/galerie-d-exposition-carrefour-des-arts_-s.html#.WTsPPBM1-hc
