The world renowned charity exhibition “United Buddy Bears” is a group of 124 distinctively painted, life-sized bears, which stand paw in paw to promote peaceful coexistence, tolerance and international understanding amongst nations. They are set to cause a stir at Sydney’s Circular Quay from March 8th when they will be on public display for a four-week period.
“We have to get to know each other better…it makes us understand one another better, and trust each other more, and live together more peacefully.”
In 2002 and 2003, this was the motto of the circle of "United Buddy Bears" next to the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin - now promoting this message of tolerance and understanding among nations on a global tour.
These "United Buddy Bears" (each 2 m tall) stand together hand in hand in complete harmony - representing 124 member states of the United Nations.
The idea for this exhibition was created 2001 by the inventors of the Buddy Bears Eva and Dr Klaus Herlitz, having three aspects in mind:
ART
Each Buddy Bear has been designed individually by an artist on behalf of his or her native country. The international artists' different styles are joined together in a very cheerful way as one work of art, spreading zest for life.
MESSAGE
Due to the diverse design of the Buddy Bears - always typical for the respective countries - their visitors can experience a journey around the world and receive a lot of information about the individual countries as the basis for a higher level of understanding.
The symbolic message of the circle promotes tolerance and peaceful coexistence
CHARITY
Buddy Bear activities and help for children in need have formed an inseparable unit. A total of 1,094,000 € (as per December 2005) has so far been generated through donations and selling Buddy Bears at auctions in aid of UNICEF and local organisations helping children in need.
As the circle of "United Buddy Bears" wants to promote international understanding, we would at the same time like to raise awareness about all those countries that desperately need support.
GLOBAL TOUR
The Project was initiated by Eva and Dr Klaus Herlitz in 2001, and since that time, the bears have been touring the world. To date, in every city of its tour-Berlin, Kitzbuhel, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Tokyo and Seoul-the exhibition has had significant amounts of support by renowned people such as Peter Ustinov, Jackie Chan, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Horst Kohler and the Prime Minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi.
After Sydney, in the Summer of 2006, the “United Buddy Bears” will go back to Berlin, before it will embark on another tour around the world inlate 2006.
For more information please visit this website:
www.united-buddy-bears-sydney.com