All posts tagged: Movement On The Ground

Icy & Sot: Giving Plants and New Life to Refugees in Greece

Icy & Sot: Giving Plants and New Life to Refugees in Greece

July 15, 2019

Street Art brothers Icy and Sot once again lead by example with their latest act of artivism at a refugee camp in Greece.

Icy & Sot. Giving Flowers. Lesbos Greece. June 2019. (photo © Icy & Sot)

People chased from their homes by wars in places like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan are now part of a larger conversation in Europe as countries struggle to accept the massive numbers of refugees in the last decade. On the Greek island of Lesbos, the overcrowding of a camp named Moria has produced Olive Grove, a temporary place full of tents, but little nature.

Icy & Sot. Giving Flowers. Lesbos Greece. June 2019. (photo © Icy & Sot)

With a goal of softening the hardship for people living here, Icy and Sot raised money through a print sale online and with the proceeds purchased fresh flowering plants to give away. “It was wonderful to see that actually put a smile on peoples’ faces for a moment,” they say in a press release.

Icy & Sot. Giving Flowers. Lesbos Greece. June 2019. (photo © Icy & Sot)

While they have traveled around many international cities in the last five years creating site-specific interventions that contemplate issues of immigration, environmental degradation, and endangered species, the artists felt that the gravity of this place merited something more than just an art installation.

Working with a group called Movement on the Ground and with Doug Gillen of Fifth Wall TV in tow, the two helped build raised gardens and planted vegetables, in addition to handing out many potted plants. Today we have images of persons in the camp from Icy & Sot along with the new video, one of Doug’s best.

Icy & Sot. Giving Flowers. Lesbos Greece. June 2019. (photo © Icy & Sot)

It’s a simple act full of symbolism and invokes the power of the natural world in healing our many wounds. “We know this project didn’t really change anything for those people,” the say, “They come to Europe to be far from the dangers of war, far from hearing bomb explosions, for a better future for their kids. They have had an exhausting journey and they deserve better. They deserve our support.”

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Icy & Sot: “Giving Plant” Gives Plants to Refugees

Icy & Sot: “Giving Plant” Gives Plants to Refugees

April 17, 2019

Springtime makes you do spontaneous acts of nature – like running to the local plant store or corner deli to buy a plant for your mom, or your grandma, or that colorful guy who runs the laundromat on the corner.

There is something very gratifying in the act of giving a living thing to another person that makes you feel grounded to the earth, connected to the family of humanity.

For the next five days Street Art brothers Icy & Sot are giving us all an opportunity to give plants to people who live in refugee camps, while they wait for a better future.

Icy & Sot “Giving Plant” (photo courtesy of Icy & Sot)

With the goal of improving quality of life and fortifying the dignity of the refugee population in Greece, Icy & Sot will be in Lesvos in person next month to hand out plants to the people there together with the foundation Movement On The Ground .

For the next five days, until April 22nd at midnight (EST) you can help by purchasing their new print, “Giving Plant”.

“The Idea is to give hope and joy to the people in the refugee camps while they are waiting for a better future,” says Sot.

Girl with flowers at the Olive Grove. (photo courtesy of Icy & Sot)

“Basically with buying a print you are buying plants for the refugees,” explains Icy.

Please Click on the link below to purchase the print:

https://givingplant.bigcartel.com/product/giving-plant

Please forward this link to friends and family as well – It’s an excellent way to give and show support in a place where nature will be welcomed.

Family at the Olive Grove. (photo courtesy of Icy & Sot)

From Movement On The Ground Website: Movement On The Ground, is a group of independent business people responding to a humanitarian crisis affecting the innocent men, women, and children forced from their homes by climate change, poverty, and war. Movement On The Ground sets a new blueprint for humanitarian help worldwide.

The organization aims to maintain a fixed presence on the island of Lesvos. They work as much as possible with the local community in the attempt to connect locals with refugees. Their projects are all based on the goal of improving dignity for the refugee population.

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