Art installation raising awareness of refugees

A new art installation in Winnipeg is shedding light on the plight of refugees worldwide.

The art installation, called "Travel Safe," was installed in Odeon Park, located across from the Burton Cummings Theatre.

It stands two-and-a-half storeys high, and utilizes more than 3,000 discarded shoes gathered from refugees and people displaced to create the image of Alan Kurdi, a two-year-old Syrian refugee who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea in 2015.

Local artist Darcy Ataman said he was inspired to create the work after meeting with refugees in Turkiye in 2017.

"I was on the border of Syria and Turkiye with some youth that had just fled Syria and crossed the border safely, and we're having a conversation about what happened to them," he said. "And in the middle of it, one gentleman stopped me and he said, 'No, you don't understand. We know you see the images every day on the news for the last three years, we know no one's coming to save us, and we know why, and it was heartbreaking,' and he was correct."

"Travel Safe" will remain in Winnipeg until Sept. 23, when it will move to Parliament Hill in Ottawa.