Every September 21st - UN International Peace Day, we invite everyone to be part of Essays for Peace. Essays for Peace is a global movement that aims to rehearse peace on its World Day, September 21st. We propose three ways to participate: replacing the content of all screens (private, public, small, and large) with a video of a lit candle; joining the Peace Wave at noon, local time, with a minute of silence; ringing bells in your community at 12:01PM, local time. The inaugural global edition in 2024 was a resounding success, spanning all time zones from New Zealand to Hawaii. Light Up every screen On the night of September 20th, as midnight strikes and the 21st dawns, we invite everyone to replace the content of all screens worldwide, for any duration, with a video of a lit candle. Throughout the day, keep the candle image on your screens, share moments of meditation and reflection, and spread the message of peace on social media. Encourage your friends, family, and colleagues to participate. No words. No logos. No politics. Just a candle. This universal symbol of unity evokes a collective yearning for tranquility. Each flickering flame represents a soul seeking peace, rising like a prayer for a more harmonious world. A Moment of Silence At noon, local time, we join the Peace Wave by switching screens to lit candles and meditating for a minute of silence. A Symphony for Peace At 12:01 PM, we invite bell towers and chimes worldwide to join a minute of sound, ringing bells in every town and city until midnight. Renowned composer Llorenç Barber has created a score for peace to accompany this action. Valencian Campaners, led by Francesc Llop i Bayo, are mobilizing bell-ringing networks worldwide. A Network of Peace The project proposes to assemble a network of networks: Individuals, public and private organizations together looking for their inner peace, where hope and solace can emerge both spiritually and collectively in order to renew our commitment to peace. Key Highlights from 2024 Edition +20,000 OOH Advertising Screens +130 CITIES 57 from America + 18 from Europe + 22 from Africa + 26 from Asia + 7 from Oceania + Antarctica + 90 OOH COMPANIES 42 from America + 13 from Europe + 11 from Africa + 21 from Asia + 2 from Oceania + 40 COUNTRIES 15 from America + 5 from Europe + 8 from Africa + 12 from Asia + 2 from Oceania + 25 INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS (NGO´s for Peace, OOH Organizations, UN). MANY MORE screens, cities and countries than we've ever dreamt for our first global Essays for Peace. It was a huge achievement by a great team of volunteers.
2024 Essays for Peace Video
Would you like to participate?
We invite you to be part of the 2025 Edition of Essays for Peace. You can participate as an individual, as part of an organization or company, or even become a reference in your city. Please fill our contact form by clicking here. We will be contacting you as soon as we start working on the 2025 Edition.
Participate as an individual
We invite you to change the content of your home screens such as cell phones, tablets or televisions to the image of the candle. You can accompany the image of the candle with a meditation, moment of silence or music. Follow us on @essaysforpeace on Instagram and share your participation with the hashtag #EssaysForPeace or #EnsayosParaLaPaz Download the video here
Participate as an organization or company
We invite you to participate by being a node of this action and spreading it in your offices, among your collaborators, inviting them to be part of this action or simply changing the content of your screens during that day. If you collaborate with screens, we invite you to complete a form. Don't forget to detail the size so that we can share the video with you in the correct format. You can complete the participation form here
As a media, advertising or OOH company
You can join as a node of the peace network by donating time on your screens. It may be at noon and/or midnight, for 5 minutes or as long as you wish. We invite all those responsible for the screens to complete a form so that we can send them the material in their corresponding size. You can complete the participation form here
Participate being a peace multiplicator node in your networks
We all belong to different networks of friends, clubs and organizations that could help us grow and reach more people. We invite you to write to us at essaysforpeace@gmail.com to see how you can multiply our participation in these essays on Peace. The network/association/group can be of any type and can help us reach more people, more screens, or get to know projects that also work for peace. Thanks a lot!
Project's Timeline
2004 First candle lit in San Francisco. Back in December 2004, artist Martin Bonadeo projected the piece Hope for the external wall at Yerba Buena Center for the arts in San Francisco. The projected candle was consuming every night until December 31st where it got to its minimal expression. That midnight a hand came in frame to lit a new candle.
2010 Peace, at Buenos Aires´ Centro Cultural Recoleta
Hope was shown in a couple of cities in the United States during the first decade of the 2000s, and in 2010 a version was made in one of the rooms at Centro Cultural Recoleta. This art space borders a cemetery, giving the piece new possible interpretations. The exhibition served to show local out-of-Home Advertising companies the content of the piece, but none of the companies agreed at that time to donate their spaces for commercial reasons.
2013 Peace at Buenos Aires´ Teatro Colón screen
In December 2013 Hope changed it name to Peace and it was shown for a complete month alternated with other contents of a public large scale LED Screen located in Vatican Square next to Teatro Colón, famous Buenos Aires Opera house. Although it arrived to Avenida 9 de Julio LED Billboard Circuit -called Punto Obelisco, is a local version of Times Square-, it was in the edge and in a state owned cultural screen.
2021 Essays for living in peace in Buenos Aires
The Coronavirus pandemic lowered the cost of advertising screens due to the absence of public in the streets. With the help of the Ministry of Culture and Public Space of the City of Buenos Aires and with the support of the National Museum of Fine Arts, the donation of 19 large-format screens surrounding the obelisk was obtained. Essays for living in Peace was the name of the proposal led by artist Martín Bonadeo and supported by 17 outdoor advertising companies with the donation of spaces on their screens for 5 consecutive nights.
Essays for living in Peace sequels
The last night Martina Dighero, at that moment Martin Bonadeo´s assistant was in charge of the documentation for the artist´s social media. The audience who could enjoy the piece during that 5 nights was less that 20 persons. Amazed by the action and a little frustrated by the lack of public, Martina suggested Bonadeo to make a global version of Essays for Peace. Three years later Martina Dighero was the Project Manager of a global 20000 OOH screen project developed in more than 130 cities around the world led Martin Bonadeo.
PRESS: Essays for Peace in Ushuaia TV
The first media to broadcast the project Essays for Peace was the public television station "Fueguina", in Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, confirming that it is a project that brings airs of peace from the south to the rest of world Watch the full video
La capital de Mar de Plata
After having appeared on television at the end of the world, the newspaper La Capital from the city of Mar del Plata, a coastal city in Argentina, was the second media outlet to cover the Peace Essays. Although we did not seek to have the news spread from the southern peripheries to the North, this is what happened organically and we are delighted that it did. Read the story in spanish
Ana Martínez Quijano set a context for Essays for Peace in Ambito Financiero
Our friend, Ana Martínez Quijano, is the first journalist in the art world to explain in a very generous note the context from which the action arose and to publish it in her column in the newspaper Ambito Financiero of Buenos Aires, Argentina. This note becomes the first time that the project is mentioned in a mass media in a world capital 17 days after the event. Read the story in spanish
Essays for peace by Israel Tolentino Cotrina in the newspaper "Ahora" of Huánuco, Peru
The news on Essays for Peace continues its journey from the South to the North and the next stop is the newspaper "Ahora" in Huánuco, a district capital in the central Peruvian highlands. The pen is by the artist Israel Tolentino Cotrina, another friend who has known the project since its genesis and describes with much love the heart of the project. Read the story in spanish
Essays for Peace Team at FM Cultura Radio Studios
A few days before the UN International Peace Day, Carmen Sicardi invited the team behind Essays for Peace initiative to a full hour of her radio program to talk about the project. Martina Dighero, our Project Manager, Matilde Llambí Campbell in charge of Museums and cultural spaces in Argentina and other countries in LatAM, and Guillermo Caro, our strategic advisor for actions with a global social impact, participated in the audience. These three, together with Alejandra Rosell, were in charge of activating the project from Argentina to the world. Martín Bonadeo participated from Barcelona giving a brief global overview of the project.
Essays for Peace in Ñ the cultural magazine of the most read newspaper in Argentina
In the last few days we have received support from very important media such as Clarín, which published a column announcing the project in its cultural magazine. Despite not having invested in a press campaign, the project has gained considerable visibility.
Essays for Peace candle brodacasted by a TV station
Although we made the proposal to many mass media, only Canal á, the cultural channel of the ARTEAR group from Argentina, accompanied us by broadcasting 5 minutes of the video of the candle for peace on its screen. We hope that in 2025 there will be many more cable TV channels, open TV channels and streaming platforms that will support us by broadcasting the candle at some point during the day. To promote the action, people form Canal á produced the following spot.
World out of Home Organization supports us
One month before the @essaysforpeace, The World Out of Home Organization (WOO), the world's largest association of outdoor advertising screens, has expressed its support for this project, which brought thousands of screens in several dozen cities. We know that there are more screens than people in the world and we want the message on all possible screens for 2025. link to WOO news after Essay for peace link to WOO news before Essay for peace
OAAA Supports Essays for Peace
Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA) is the premier trade association for the US out of home advertising (OOH) industry, has expressed its support for this project, publishing our candles videos in their website oaaa.org/resources/essays-for-peace/ and inviting all their members to download them and participate in 2024 Essays for peace.
Essays for Living in Peace 2021
2021 Essays for living in peace
In June 2021, 19 large-format screens belonging to 17 companies in the City of Buenos Aires donated their spaces for 5 consecutive nights in the name of Peace.
2021 Essays for Living in Peace in Buenos Aires
2024 Essays for Peace Partners
