When art helps children talk about their skin
What if we could translate pain into color, isolation into pencil lines, difference into visual poetry? From November 24, the René Touraine Foundation is launching a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to publish a new work: a vibrant compilation of ten years of creations from the competition.My skin tells“where children and teenagers from all over the world drew what their skin says about them. The campaign runs until Christmas and aims to raise 15,000 euros.
© René Touraine Foundation
Behind this initiative, a strong observation. For a child suffering from a dermatological disease, the skin becomes an issue of identity, a sometimes painful border between oneself and others.
Being visibly different at the age when self-image is being constructed is a silent ordeal. This editorial project wants to give it a voice, colors, a form: that of art as an outlet and bridge between intimate experiences and the view of the world.
When drawings replace words
Since 2015, the international competition “My skin tells” (also known as “The Story of My Skin”) allowed young patients to express themselves differently. Through their drawings,
they spoke of their suffering, their courage, but also the singular beauty of their body when it becomes a support for creation. Sometimes exhibited in hospitals or partner institutions, these powerful works were until now kept in the archives of the René Touraine Foundation.
© René Touraine Foundation
The forthcoming work aims to offer them a new setting: a book of 150 to 180 pages, composed of drawings, explanatory texts and unpublished words from the children and their families. It is a living, sensitive archive, finally accessible to all, intended for caregivers, teachers, families… and each of us. This editorial project is also intended to be educational, by making visible the often overlooked emotional and social impact of dermatological diseases among young people.
A book to transform the look
Supported by a foundation committed for more than thirty years to improving dermatological health, this publication meets a dual ambition: recognize the work of these young artists and raise awareness among the general public of their reality. Thanks to their dissemination, these works become levers of empathy, understanding and recognition.
“This book is about giving lasting visibility to often silent creative voices. Each donation represents not only the financing of a publication, but also an act of recognition towards these young artists and their journey. We hope that as many people as possible will mobilize so that these drawings finally find their place in the hands of the public, professionals and families who need them”confides Professor Christine Bodemer, president of the René Touraine Foundation.
In addition to its artistic and human scope, the project also opens a window towards dermatology differently: a medicine where listening, emotion and creation intertwine. Each printed copy, each donation made, will be a stone placed on this fragile bridge between illness and the beauty of life.
At True Medical, we can only applaud this initiative which finally gives a voice, a form and a place to experiences that have been silenced for too long. Art, here, does not heal, but it repairs. And we love that.
To support the project:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fondrt/ma-peau-raconte-le-livre