United Nations: India's acclaimed director Satyajit Ray is among 16 global thinkers and artists whose portraits have been displayed at the UN headquarters here in an exhibition that honors them for their contribution to the common good of humanity.
'The Transformative Power of Art' exhibition, organized by President of the General Assembly Sam Kutesa, will be thrown open to the public on June 30.
The exhibition features sculptures and portraits by Fabrizio Ruggiero and papier mâché by Nina Muzzi.
Ruggiero's 16 large portraits combine the ancient fresco technique with contemporary technology and depict thinkers and artists from all continents who contributed to the common good of humanity and stood up for the most vulnerable.
Ray, who received an honorary Oscar in 1992, the same year that he was bestowed with India's highest civilian award Bharat Ratna, is among the 16 personalities whose portraits has been displayed.
The others are Pakistani rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, renowned musician from Gabon Pierre-Claver Akendengué, legendary American author Maya Angelou, American folk singer Joan Baez, British actress Audrey Hepburn, influential Russian painter Vassily Kandinsky, Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum, Chinese actress Gong Li.
Grammy Award-winning South African singer and civil rights activist Miriam Makeba, French philosopher Edgar Morin, Iranian actress Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, Ugandan poet Okot p'Bitek, Brazilian social documentary photographer Sebastião Salgado, Nigerian playwright and poet Wole Soyinka and Kenyan writer Ngugi Wa Thiong'o.
Muzzi's papier mâché pieces resemble sculpted stones but are made with recycled newspapers and cardboard, which in the hands of this environmental artist becomes a new ecological material.
Through paintings, sculptures, papier mâché and scented dried flowers, the exhibition embodies the necessity to place people at the centre of nations' concern while protecting the planet.
The exhibition is part of the United Nations "2015: Time for Global Action" campaign.
