“Korean Painter Kim Geun-tae’s Art Exhibition” (Like Wildflowers, Like Stars)

Ambassador Choi,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen:

It’s a pleasure to be with you today for the opening of this wonderful exhibition by the Korean painter Kim Geun-Tae. We are grateful to the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea for enriching our Palais with these beautiful, vibrant paintings.

For they really are a joy to see – particularly at a time like today.

Just look outside the window. The colours of autumn are fading, slowly but surely giving way to the still darkness of winter.

Now look at the paintings. An explosion of vibrant colours; dynamic forms centred in broad, deep brushstrokes.

These pictures hold value and meaning far beyond aesthetic joy.

They are dedicated to children with intellectual disabilities, and some of the paintings in this exhibition were in fact made by disabled children.

Yesterday, we marked the International Day of Persons with Disabilities – a day to put into focus what life is like for the “world’s largest minority”.

More than one billion people – that’s 15% of the world’s total population – live with some form of disability. More than 100 million are children.

Confronted with stigmas, discrimination, and ignorance, they are four times more likely to experience violence than other children.

In the world we seek as we work to make the promise of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development a reality, this violence has no place.

Just as freedom must always mean the freedom of dissenters, inclusion must mean including the vulnerable, those too often left out.

This is what is at the very heart of our pledge to “leave no one behind.” It’s about empowering the powerless; about including the excluded; about making sure that every life lived is a life of dignity.

Because once we do, we will find that our societies are richer, smarter, more diverse, more resilient, and altogether more worth living in.

The wonderful pictures in this exhibition are powerful testaments to that truth.

And for that, thank you.