CORE - Intergenerational and International Memory of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident: providing words and pictures, toward the 20th anniversary of the tragedy

The specific objectives of the project were:

• setting up of the conditions for the development of an international and cross generational transmission of the memory of the accident and its consequences for mankind.
• contributing to the sustainable improvement of living conditions in the contaminated territories, giving the possibility to the inhabitants to express their life experience and their understanding of the event and its consequences and the problems they face, to the rest of the world.
• understanding the dynamic evolution of the accident's memory (constitution of archives and documentary funds) from 1986 to today.
• contributing to a complete understanding of the accident and its consequences.
• helping people express their experience through words and images.
• involving local inhabitants of all generations in the creative process.
• underlining the essential role of the development of the practical radiological culture in the rehabilitation process.
• sharing the initiatives and heighten international public awareness.

The project was carried out according to the specifications. The results were performed in two activities related to the objectives above mentioned:

Activity 1: Preparation and creation of an international exhibition of the 20th anniversary of the catastrophe at the Bragin Museum, with the active contribution of the inhabitants.

The realisation of the exhibition and the publication of the catalogue was the conclusion of the collective work on the memory of the Chernobyl accident and its consequences on humankind, initiated by Psf contractor with the population of the four districts of the CORE programme. The local population's involvement in this project was the result of several years of presence of Psf in the four districts, through workshops and seminars organisation.

The selection of a Belarusian artist, able to fully understand the subject, to free the symbolic sense of the catastrophe and to direct the realisation of the exhibition and its catalogue constituted the finalisation part of the action.

• The involvement of the working groups in the collection process was consistent. Almost all the participants attended the seminar organised in September 2005 in Bragin.
• The opening of the exhibition was really successful as the local inhabitants, the project partners (Bragin Museum/ Bragin Cultural Department) and the local authorities were fully involved in the whole process (organisation, management of the services). This success was made possible mainly thanks to the implementation of the local team, which created confident relationships.
• The artistic direction was of a very high level and the creation proposed an excellent understanding of the subject.

The following documents were produced:

• 1 000 samples of the catalogue of the exhibition "the Lost land" (edited in French, English and Russian).
• 1 500 posters (1 000 posters have been included in the catalogues).
• 1 000 duplication of the DVD "Lost villages", included in the catalogue (edited in French, English and Russian).
• 250 printed invitations for the opening of the exhibition, edited in French, English and Russian (the invitation has also been sent on electronic format by email).
• Press releases in French, English and Russian announcing the opening of the exhibition and the edition of the catalogue.

Activity 2: Creation and production of 30 children stories on the theme "Tell me a story, Mr. Cloud".

24 short films were created with 24 different groups of children all around Belarus. The book and its 2 DVDs were published. The seminar organised in September 2005 showed the interest of the Belarusian schools and artists in the project activity.

Two other seminars were organised in October 2006 and November 2006 for the artists, The first one aimed at explaining how to organize workshops with children, how to involve the teacher in the creative process. Psf show some examples of such workshops organised in France. The second one aimed at giving a clear view on the scientific aspects of the catastrophe, and at confronting the ways to express the catastrophe of a scientist and of a story-teller.
There has been a great deal of exchanges among the teams involved in the country and at international level through the website.

A seminar gathering all the actors of the CORE-Edu programme (French NGO CEPN, ACRO and PSF, and their Belarusian partners) was organised on March 2008 at the Sakharov University.

• The website was finished by April 2008.

The publishing of the DVD/book "Tell me, mister cloud" was finished by April 2008, in order to coincide with the anniversary of the catastrophe.