SCAVENGER by 12 children aged 9 to 12 I Belgium
April 7, 2025
Live Walls: How the Children of Wild Kids Studio Turned an Abandoned Hotel into a Canvas of Expression
By Koumoutsi Soultana
In the heart of Jerusalem, where history and modernity collide, an abandoned hotel stood as a silent witness to time—its walls stained from remnants of fire, rain, and forgotten lives. For years, it remained unused, a relic of the past. Then, a group of children from Wild Kids Animation Studio arrived. With spray cans and unlimited inspiration, they transformed its decaying surfaces into a living canvas, covering them with graffiti that speak for the stories embedded in the city around them and also their own experiences and dreams.
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What began as a spontaneous artistic intervention soon evolved into something deeper. The children animated their murals, creating "Live Walls" a short film that blends self-expression with the history of the space itself. Selected for the official competition at the Psaroloco Children and Teens Festival in the "Short Films Made by Children" category, the film is a testament of creativity’s power in storytelling as a form of resistance.
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We discussed with Karina Hananeia, co-director and producer of Wild Kids Studio, and Max Epstein, co-founder and art director, about the unique creative process behind Live Walls, the role of animation as a form of self-expression, and how Jerusalem’s multilayered history imbues the work of young artists. How does a multicultural city shape the perspective of its youngest inhabitants? And what does it mean for children to claim a space through art? Their answers reveal a world where
memory, imagination, and resistance merge—frame by frame.
Karina Hananeia
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The Studio co-director & producer. BUTOH Dancer, photographer, animator MFA
How does the cultural diversity of Jerusalem influence the creative process of the children at Wild Kids Studio and how is it reflected in their works?
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Jerusalem is a very complex space. It’s areas inside several narratives living together and at some points even struggling with each other. The historical one of more than 3000 years of it's existing, the religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam and many others. All of them are covering the same places, with all the same stories, and, finally, the young city of today which is behind the walls of Old City of Jerusalem for last than 200 years and it struggle with the traditions around it by trying to renovate
them and create its own. That’s the city where actually we as artists and also the Wild Kids studio belong and actually provides connection between all of the three main narratives. Wild kids from age of five till age of 20 creating their own points of view on the environment from the position of freedom. The position of being part of existing context but also creating their own. The Films of Wild Kids usually based on personal experience and that what actually makes it kind of diary or document of Young Jerusalem life.
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The abandoned hotel, with its worn walls and traces of history, was transformed into a canvas for the children. How did their interaction with this space shape their thinking about history, identity and public space?
The new space of the studio is a very interesting place. Not only because it’s kind of official squat, but also because the building itself was the first actual Israeli hotel build in 1950. So, it had a very rich history with a lot of great people stayed there. Then for more than 25 years it was left and stayed empty, visited by all kinds of personalities living in Jerusalem; filmmakers using it as a perfect location for low budget films, homeless and young people left many signs of their existing in the building. When we came in, we saw those signs and of course we were translating them into the language of communication with the space which supposed to become also our home. We were talking about not only graffiti, but also some kind of vandalism science and about the actual persons behind it and what might be the meaning of it. So, the whole thing became kind of rereading the history of the building and what we would say at the moment we becoming a part of that history.
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How did the creation of LIVE WALLS help the children develop critical thinking about the space that surrounds them, but also about the stories that the walls of their city “carry”?
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In a way the creation of "Live Walls" was the documentary reflection on what we could read from the walls that we got in our space. While we’re thinking of where is the border between being creative and having possibility to say what you have to say by the action of graffiti and the border between destroying the space of your own. The group of young filmmakers who worked on that film were also thinking of what they want to leave for the future and also what they will say to the other Wild Kids, sharing the space with them right now. This group were the pioneers of the process, but later the youngest Wilds and the elder teens joined this correspondence through the walls of the studio and feel it with other images.
Max
Epstein
Co-founder, art director of Wild Kids Studio. Interdisciplinary artist and educator, MFA
Graffiti and animation often function as forms of resistance and redefinition of reality. How do children perceive this dynamic and how do they express it through their work?
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Well, by answering on this question, it’s important to say that the Studio exist already for 15 years and the conception of using the animation as a common language for creating personal point of view is behind the pedagogical method. Animation connects between word-line-shape-color-sound and more and it is a perfect media to any kid with different skills to join the process. It is a long- term project and some kids were part of the Studio for 12 years and then joined the teachers’ team to share their own experience with the youngest. It is always the memory (personal) and imagination blending together on animation table. Which bring us to the main meaning of the word ANIMA – Soul, but also Me Inside Myself. Kids speaking this "Language" fluently also know how to listen to other voices of their partners and how to create their own voice. I guess Wilds keep it in a very
personal way. What I remember and know it is what I am inside myself and what I feel and dream about it is what is in my soul.
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​In an era where images and information are circulated at extreme speed, how does the animation process help children acquire a more thoughtful and critical relationship with the media?
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I guess that the most important skill of Wilds is the possibility to create their own contents for the screens and even more important that they know how to make their own choices. And not only trysting the button but also checking the information behind that resource. Well, they also know how to work with many different materials and artistic media, they see the connections between
them and simply protected from bad taste mass media images…
And they’re not going through this process alone they’re always been there with their partners from the group and with the studio teachers, who are artist by themselves and it is always the dialog between them and the Kids. They getting the fact of several options and becoming more patient by listening to the other opinion and by choosing their own direction.
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Were there moments during the program where the children challenged stereotypes or presented a different perspective on Jerusalem and their society through their art?
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Well, in 15 years of existence of the Studio we created several inside rules for our self. First, there is no stereotype thinking in art. It could be only truthful when it expresses your personal point of view together with the collective memories. And also, the studio itself it is kind "Republik" of safe and (in a way) happy childhood which exist out of any politics directions and trying to figure the sensitive contents of the society and of our times.
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What is the most important lesson that you, as a creator, learned from the experience of making this film and from your collaboration with the children of Wild Kids Studio?
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Me and Karina were in the studio from the very beginning. I can talk for hours about those moments which became a lesson for us. Kids react to the surroundings so spontaneously and so immediately. They also never lie in their creation. So, this fast tempo of reaction and the artistic truth is the main lesson for us as artists.
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Film:
