createPeace:
can art define peace?

What does your peace look like?

The world seems to be sinking into a multitude of crises and conflicts. The flood of negative news is overwhelming. Many people struggle with the feeling of powerlessness.
In order to constructively address this powerlessness, courage and the will to create profound changes are needed more than ever. It needs ideas and images that counteract the negative news: positive images.

If “without peace everything is nothing” and if we want to express our desire for peace today, what does this actually look like? What image would you create that others might also want to participate in?

The createPeace initiative invites artists and cultural workers to contribute their personal views of peace. The individual works open doors to new spaces for discussion about peace – both online and in direct encounters.

The createPeace initiative is organized by Matthias Ries and Kirches-Ban.de.

So far, artists from the following countries are participating: Afghanistan, Argentina, Austria, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Dagestan, Democratic Republic of Congo, England, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Syria, Taiwan, Ukraine, Uruguay, USA, Venezuela, Yemen.

Gallery

Suppose a miracle were to happen tonight and there would be peace when you woke up tomorrow morning. If you were to express this peace in an image, what would your image look like?

Artists

Blog

The Role of Art in Promoting Peace

 

Read more blog posts

Events

Kunstraum Ba Cologne / © Michael Zoephel

The opening of the first major createPeace exhibition
and encounter with over 200 visitors took place
on October 3, 2025 at the Kunstraum Ba Cologne.