From 6 to 29 July, 2023, Attitude Studios Vienna hosted our one-of-a-kind “Be Your Own Hero” charity Art Exhibition at the Studio Moliere Theater of the French Lycée in Vienna.

We look back at the extraordinary exhibition of young talents, which helped tell the stories for those young people who found themselves in challenging life situations attempting to move forward and start anew.

At the beginning Petra Zublasing, Italian industrial artist and two-times Olympian in shooting who curated this exhibition has asked young creators to explore the topic of heroism in real life and reflect on the question: “Heroism does not have to come from a superhero movie, but what if the superhero was you?”

The responses came in the “Be Your Own Hero” exhibition featuring 25 artists under the age of 20, the youngest being 10-year-old Anne Marii from Estonia.  Among the creators on display were scholars from Ukraine, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Belarus, North Macedonia, Qatar, Check Republic, Georgia, Estonia, France and Turkey.

The exhibition in Vienna headlined illustrations, paintings, photographs, and AI-generated artworks submitted by the international creative community  as their response to the open call to help tell the stories for those youngsters whose lives are affected by such challenging situations as war, natural disaster, hunger or poverty. The exhibition had a dual purpose: to bring the public to the discovery of emerging artists and contribute to a solidarity cause.

Young, displaced talents from Ukraine were also proactively invited to participate in the project through such educational institutions as La Sallay Academy and World Federation of Ukrainian Women Organizations.

The public was also invited to support “Be Your Own Hero” proactively. As a part of our day-long charity event dedicated to the Word Refugee Day, we offered our Instagram users to vote for the artwork that would decorate the cover of the 2024 calendar – the final component of this project. “A girl in Red with capital M” by Melani Antonievska from Shtip, North Macedonia collected the biggest number of votes and will be crowning the calendar that is to be put on sale in late October. Through the sale of its copies, we hope to raise donations for brushes, markers, pencils, paints, and books that will go directly to the Ukrainian School in Geneva.

We believe that by promoting interest in art we inspire other youth to similarly use their skills to do good and help the less fortunate.

“Everyone can be a hero by showing how to be caring, kind, brave and not to give up when things become tough. Children are the some of the most resilient people and in turn, heroes that live among us, even if all they are trying to do is learn and make their lives normal” – said Petra Zublasing in her annotation to the exhibition.

If you got involved, whether by submitting art, coming along to the exhibition or placing a vote, we’re incredibly grateful.

We would also like to express a few words of appreciation to the “Be Your Own Hero” project sponsors and supporters: Le Sallay International Academy (France), Monte School (Brazil), Attitude Studios (Austria), Dot Shot Creative Web Agency (Ukraine), DOO Bucim Radovish (North Macedonia). Your support means everything, and we simply couldn’t do what we did without you – thank you!