For some, money that no longer has monetary value is useless. For the art teacher and the students of the XNUMXnd Lyceum, in Kolossi, however, they were a source of inspiration. Coins and banknotes were the basic materials for their new sculpture, with which they send messages about how our society ended up and how it can be made better.
The students, under the guidance of teacher Popis Nikolaou, created a sculpture depicting a homeless man made of coins and banknotes left behind by tourists at Cypriot airports.
The idea for the creation of this sculpture came after the proposal accepted by the professor from the leadership of the Pancyprian Coordinating Council of Volunteering, who asked her to create a sculpture, with the money left behind by the people.
"In the beginning I was worried, to be honest. I thought "why not give the money to those in need?" and when they told me that they have no value anymore, then I accepted ", Popi Nikolaou told REPORTER.
"They brought me the money in the summer and then I started thinking about what could be done. "I wanted to teach something to my students through this sculpture, because my goal is to leave food for thought to my students and I try to challenge them through art, so that they are active citizens", noted the art teacher who won World Teacher Award.
The news about the homeless and the decision
The news about the homeless in Limassol was the reason for creating the idea for the form that the sculpture would take.
"I am shocked by this news. They were images that I used to see abroad and I thought in our Cyprus where there is solidarity and love, how is it possible to have this problem. And so the idea was created to make a sculpture about the homeless. When school started, with a group of my students, we talked about sculpture, I told them my idea and we decided to make a sculpture with only one figure, a homeless man ".
Thus, they began the construction of the sculpture. They made the figure, they were not satisfied, they spoiled it and recreated it with another technique.
"What bothered me was how the money would come in. We decided that we would make the homeless man's skin with his banknotes and clothes, which wanted volume, we would make them with coins and we started distributing and separating the coins ".
As Mrs. Nikolaou noted, this whole process with the coins proved to be a very important and nice lesson, since in their possession they had coins with Gaddy, Mandela and other personalities and she herself explained to her students who these people were and how many great things they had done.
The students loved the process and it showed in the result
The students loved the process of making the sculpture and as he noted, during the implementation of the idea, students who did not participate in the construction also came. According to him, he had created a group of students of the XNUMXnd Lyceum, as he did not want to distract the attention of the senior students, who will attend the Pancyprian Examinations.
"My students came to their breaks, to their vacations to continue the construction of the sculpture, while for the same purpose they decided not to go on an excursion to stay at school and continue their work. I think the result was amazing, as it was an incredible job. I did not think that the result would be so nice. I was surprised. We managed to give the message we wanted, to sensitize the people ".
As the art teacher explained, the coins were stuck to the figure one by one, while at the same time they had to be given volume and shading, which is extremely difficult.
The awards from the President of the Republic
Volunteers are expected to pick up the sculpture when the schools reopen after the Christmas holidays.
"They were excited about the result. In fact, even the President of the Republic invited the students to the awards for the volunteers and awarded them an award. This gave the students the courage to do other things, as they saw that through art, they can get the message they want. They also understand that they must be serious and not show their ego, but us ", stressed Mrs. Nikolaou.
The sculpture park for human rights
The goal of the art teacher of the Lyceum of Kolossi is to create a sculpture park for human rights at school.
"I have created some projects at school, such as the fallen angels, and I would like a park to be created. But funds are needed, because a project needs a lot of materials to be created. Already last year, the Director of Secondary Education, Kyprianos Louis, contacted us and told us that he would put us in the budget of the Ministry of Education for next year. I want to have by my side the students, the parents and the management of the school, which is always our helper and I want it to be a park, where the citizens will learn about human rights and when they are violated in the modern era ", concluded Popi Nikolaou.
Source: reporter