LONDON.- The work is on display as part of the wider exhibition Leaving Today: the Freuds in Exile 1938, which charts the journey of Sigmund Freud and his family’s flight from Nazi-occupied Vienna.

Through the experiences of Freud and his family threads a universal story of flight and exile. Britain remains a refuge for many fleeing persecution, torture, enslavement and murder. At the center of the exhibition are the voices of young people who attend the Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile through work they have created in collaboration with the artist Barnaby Barford. Each young person has come to Britain, unaccompanied, to seek refuge and safety.

Artist Barnaby Barford on the Contemporary Voice project: “I was introduced to the great work the Baobab Centre does through The Freud Museum. I was heartbroken yet inspired to hear the devastating stories of just a few of the young people that have come to this country as unaccompanied refugees. I feel honoured to be able to help them express their voice through Art for this forthcoming exhibition.“

“These children and young people are often just statistics in the news, it is not until you hear their individual stories that you realise how important it is to try and help raise awareness of their plight. Many have faced unbearable experiences that no child or young person should ever have to go through. I hope this project will enable a new audience to understand the difficulties they face, the hardships they have endured, and be inspired by their strength and resolve.”

“In a small way I hope it can change perceptions. We will be making large scale collective drawings using their own words, telling us about their origins, journey, experience of being here in a new country, a new culture with little or no help and their hopes for the future. “

Thanujan, workshop participant on the Contemporary Voice Project: “These artworks represents a covert life of refugees and unaccompanied child asylum seekers who have been split from their own parents and violence in their country. The scribbled words represent camouflaged life of silent unaccompanied children in exile situation.

These words are very powerful illustration of how someone can be alienated or prejudiced because of his or her ethnicity, skin colour and language. This artwork emphasises of hope for the future and of how to overcome the world from darkness to light.

The composition of these words comes from many languages such as in English, French, Tamil and African languages. All the word written in this piece of work are come from individual who are refugees and asylum seekers who are fled from violence in their native countries and living in the United Kingdom with uncertainty.”