August by Clementine!

The month of holidays: August, friends and my familly came in slovenia to visit me, it was the good occasion to travel around Slovenia.
It was nice to show my environment since 6 month at all my family: how I live, where I work, my friends, my favorite place to hang out, etc. All this person brought me this envy to continue more my projects in Slovenia and everywhere.
The last week in August with Jade we went in Dobrna for our Mid-term training with the others volunteers. I can say that at the beginning I was not so ready to go there, because i had bad memories about the last training.
After one month in holidays without coming at infopeka, i wanted to come back there and start new projects. But ok, I can say that I liked this training. It was in a good environment with new EVS and the workshops were more interesting for my questions. In fact, it was about the future, after EVS, how to "use" our Evs in our life. All the week was more free than last training, we had more free time to discuss with the others volunteers and talk about our own projects and maybe do something together. It was also a new opportunity to meet new people and make a new network.

Clementine Clenet

EVS avantura Vol. 3 - Urška Ženko!

EVS avantura Vol. 3
Ker me Nataša (koordinatorica) in moja vest že zelo priganjata za novi blog (čeprav se mi zdi, da sem komajda napisala prejšnjega), se tokrat javljam iz srca Baščaršije v Sarajevu, ki je moje že drugo Rotor popotovanje. Poleti sem bila 12 dni na road tripu po Srbiji in Bolgariji, ker smo v Plovdivu postavili razstavo Black Sea Calling. Takoj po vrnitvi smo začeli intenzivno delati na projektu Future Heritage Collection, v okviru katerega v teh dneh izbiramo predmete, katere ljudje pojmujejo kot del naše bodoče dediščine. Drugi del projekta, ki bo razstava predmetov in njihovih fotografij na plakatih, se bo odvijal v okviru MESS festivala v oktobru. Prihodnjo soboto imamo v okviru festivala steirische herbst otvoritev naše nove razstave z naslovom Teritoriji. V oktobru pa načrtujem, da začnem spet spati, jesti, dihati in pridobiti nazaj skoraj že pozabljeni pojem prostega časa. Trenutno obiskujem tudi intenzivni tečaj nemščine, ki ga imam štirikrat na teden po 2 šolski uri. Tečaj se izvaja v zelo mali skupini in je zato super, vendar pa moramo precej delati tudi doma in ob garanju v Rotorju je trenutno moje življenje delo-učenje-učenje-delo. Branje nemških romanov je napredovalo na 7 minut na stran, s čimer sem že kar mičkeno zadovoljna. V začetku septembra sem se tudi že četrtič selila. Zdaj imam končno prvič v življenju stanovanje samo zase. In to ne kakršnokoli, ampak neverjetno srčkano in prostorno, prenovljeno, z ogromno sobo z nekaj zelo izbranimi starimi in starinskimi kosi pohištva. Stanovati sam je tak užitek, da sem kar nehala vabiti ljudi na obisk (na veliko smolo se zdaj vabijo kar sami). Še vedno sem v istem bezirku kot prej – 10 minut do službe, 15 minut do tečaja (oziroma od tečaja, ker grem tja kar naravnosti iz Rotorja) in 2 minuti do moje najbližje prijateljice. Mesto je lahko res neverjetno majhno.  Ker nisem prepričana koliko blogov bom do konca leta še napisala, lahko malo strnem občutke glede Evsja na podlagi svojih in veliko tujih izkušenj. Zelo veliko ali recimo raje preveč projektov je en sam velik dolgčas in zapravljanje evropskega denarja in energije in časa mladih ljudi. Nekaj projektov je zanimivih in zabavnih in omogoča mladim uresničiti lastne ideje. Eni pa so bolj podobni redni zaposlitvi. Čeprav to ni ravno skladno z idejo, kaj naj bi Evs bil, sem kar vesela, da sem sama pristala v enem od takih. Z obveznostmi in odgovornostmi, veliko samostojnega dela, predvsem pa občutkom, da bom iz tega pridobila kar največ delovnih in življenjskih izkušenj, znanja in poznanstev.

Urška Ženko

How was July? by Clementine

July was the month of our exhibition. During the opening, about 40 people came and during all the month about 35 people came to discover the artists presented in Gallery K18. It was interesting to be present for the visitors because we could bring informations because we were the organizers of this exhibition. People seemed satisfied to look all the works.

Otherwise, I spent all one week end in the Slovenian nature in Gornji Grad for a festival or rather a Non-festival translate in Slovene: Ne-festival. It was a festival around theater, but on the theater of the oppressed, for those who don't know, look this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_the_Oppressed

It was a pleasant weekend, because it allowed to me to visit another part of Slovenia and to meet new people. About theater and workshops, we were in several groups in difference workshops. Which one where I was, was more about psychology, the research of itself and his traumas. I'm not used to question myself and search in

depth, so it was a bit weird but actually I did it and i was ok, also because we were in a good atmosphere. 

It was a full weekend, and then two of my friends came from France in Ljubljana for one week. it was perfect, we could visit the capital and Maribor, i was really happy to see them in Slovenia. We have each of us hosted either our

friends or our family in July. It was good to spend such moments and be able to see again after 5 months, people on whom we really matter and give us full of happiness. It was a pleasure to make discover them the country where we live.

We are waiting for August to be with other friends and family again :)

Clementine Clenet

June by Jade

If i had to resume the month of June i would start by the end. The 30^th of June exactly happened the opening of our exhibition FOREIGN BODIES. This date represents also the end of a collectif project between Clémentine and I. And as the same time it is also the middle of our EVS in Maribor. We just arrived 5 months before. Time is running out !

This 30^th June was the opening, Clémentine Clénet, Ana Beltran Porcar, (one of the artist of the exhibition) and Sara Zickar (which one we already talk about) was there. I was suprise because we were ready, we didn't have any times of rush or stress time. We had to make a detour to pick up the art work of Ana in Brezice. That means bring back to Maribor two big pieces of painting with frames. This short detour has permited us to visit the town but we especially went to see Ana performed. On the 26^th June she had a representation with Marco, a famous musician of Elvis Jackson band. We already knew Ana's work by photos or videos but we never seen it before performed in live. I was really impressed by her energy and her motivation to create something from nothing. I mean that she started to create from the play of Marco. She transcribed the music in painting. It was important for us to see her in her element and to support her actions. Ana follows with her brush the pounding of the baton of Marco. Painting is like an extension of the sound emitted by the drummer. This duo didn't exist before and it takes shape on stage in front of the audience. To tell the truth even if we had in front of us a duet or a collective action, for me the artist is always alone, she has all her individual essence and that day Ana demonstrated that her body make part of her paint.

Behind the Foreign Bodies exhibition we wanted to have different points of view on the body seen by several artists. Manner of games, or more like an academic way, using different technical support, videos, illustrations... there is not a good and an only way to showing body. This body wich is for me our first mark.

Our friend Miquel, who is an other EVS living in Ljubljana, wrote an article at the opening of the exhibition. I let you discover here : http://ejkartica.wordpress.com/2014/07/04/foreign-bodies-in-maribors-galerjia-k18/

At the same time was the Lent Festival in Maribor. It's an important event of the year and it's during 2 weeks. This festival celebrates folklore, culture and music. Scenes appear throughout the city and not only on the Drava river. At the same time Art Kamp settled in the heart of the main Park of Maribor frome 4pm to 8pm. The place is fantastic for children a lot of activities for free are present and it's also a good time to discover stands from several organizations of Maribor wich are present. It's in this 100% natural setting that a larger stage appears in the middle of the rare food stalls.. I should mention that the culinary part happens on the Lent. Around 20 tents sheltering cooks from Maribor. The cookers came to sell their services every night for 2 weeks.

The contrast between Art Kamp and the edges of the Drava river on the Lent, is obvious. On the one hand, we find ourselves to frolic in the wild grass in the middle of children calm and concentrated on their collage-painting, and on the other this consumer society that always pushes people to regain a slice of pizza for 1 euro where music takes place in a cacophony which sometimes goes wrong with the meal.

In the middle of these two atmospheres that everything seems to be opposite, the city of Maribor who is awakened by some music scenes, and street theatre performances which born with the sandstone of the walks. Courtyards let us discover and lead us into unknown places of Maribor, sometimes to the sound of percussion or Dj set improvised. In summary we had the opportunity to share many good moments in a motley crowd, who came to partying and seeking surprise.

May: party and festivals by Clementine Clenet

May, the month of festivals and partys. It was also for now the most beautiful months in terms of sunshine.
We started the month by a festival in Ljubljana. In fact, with most of French EVS, we participated at Škisova Tržnica's festival, the 7 of May in the capital. It’s the biggest one day open air student event in Slovenia, with around 20,000 visitors each years. This festival lasts a day. In the morning from 10h to 15h, it consists of several stands where different countries present their culture mainly through food and drink. At the evening, the festival fills and varied concert and music. There is the main stage which presents differents famous bands from Slovenia and everywhere. For the electro's fans, the electro stage is here until the end of the night. To participate at this festival, we went at home of one of french EVS, to prepare tyoical meal. We cooked: goats-spinach quiches, pancakes, otherwise we bought sausages, french baguettes, french biscuits (petit LU), olives and rillettes. We can say it, our stand was the most stocked, the vistors appreciated it really.
Here a video link about the preparation and the progress of this festival :)

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOWPbRU4flQ&feature=youtu.be

No time to recover from this particularly intense festival in terms of party, the next week we went to the Lampiončki festival, also a student festival. Despite the all-day rain, we went to the different concerts. We assisted at one concert from my favorite Balkan band: Dubioza Kolektiv, it was cool.
Then, we went in Ljubljana the 16 of May to celebrate the birthday of an EVS friend.
We took the opportunity to celebrate that of Jade which came just after. It was nice to find again some of EVS to celebrate the birthday of two of them.

As May rhyme with festival, we cannot forget the volunteers's festival in Maribor organized by our structure: Infopeka.
The 21 of May, from 12h to 17h, we participated in the festival bringing together several organizations of Maribor. With Pekarna Magdalenske mreže Maribor, we organized a treasure hunt for children. The goal was to answer about questions at severals volunteers which were in differents place in the square: castle, cinema, bar, etc. At the end, if children gave the good answer, they went back with candies and one ciatation.
Also on the festival's stage, we had the occasion to talk about our feelings and experience about our EVS.

                                                  

In May, we worked and thought about our exhibition's project, which is organized in June in gelerija K18 in Maribor. We wrote a call for artists in order to find diffrents slovenian artists. Then, we thought about the main topic, what we wanted to highlight.
We found quickly the theme about the body, but we didn't want to expose the body as we can see in the magazines or in classical painting. Look for what the body can hide, if he can translate certains things? We chose to work on what the body can hide something strange, how the body can be alienated, deconstructed, distorted. How the artists, via differents mediums: drawings, paints and video, can speak about a same topic. According to this theme, we chose severals artists. It was clear that Jade would be part of the exhibition.
Following the preparation and exposure to the next episode...

Clementine Clenet

evsCloughjordan - Sara Fakin

Sara Fakin opravlja evropsko prostovoljno službo na Irskem. Vsa njena doživetja lahko spremljate na:

http://evscloughjordan.wordpress.com/

"And what about April?"

"The day of change"/Dan za spremembe 2014!

In some organisations in Maribor: Saturday 5th April 2014, it was the day of changement.
We went with a colleague and a cameraman to interview those organisations: What are you doing today? What means the changement for you?
We went in a retirement home, people have planted trees in the garden. After, we visited a space where people cleaned to have a best environnememt and we also went in the building to eat a pan-cake :).
About Pekarna Magdalenske mreže, there was also a lot of activities: clean the garden in common with Gustaf to install some furniture outside. Then, we did some seeds balls to throw them in the city. It was cool to discover other part, quarter of Maribor. There was also, seams workshops with clothes recycled, to do bags, news clothes,...
Also, children had workshops for them: making workshops of puppets and toys coming from the goods. It was really a good day, to allow changements and creation of people.

"And what about April?"

In french we said : Avril, ne te découvre pas d'un fill. That could be translated by Stay fully clothed in April. Indeed, in Slovenia, April rhymes with air flow, winter rain and momentary gleams.
We passed our month to work on the exhibition of Laure Ličer at the Galery K18, we also started to work more seriously to work on our EVS project and we travel when we had free time. This month the gallery K18 received the work of an slovenian artist, Laure Ličer, she works on illustrations. The artist paintings are between painting and illustration. The artist presents a world full of imaginary pictures and magical which hide sometimes the harsh reality : the violence of the life and her cruelty. The accumulation of drawing and colour, makes her work hypnotic. Her work arouses as the same time the world of a child who would grown too fast. By using this bright colour, her paintings are also decorative and plastic art work. We work on the establishment of her works in the gallery and we try to make the best possible her works appreciable. We met the artist one day before the opening and she started working on the establishment immediately.
We started to work this month on our own EVS project. We just work on it more seriously, because until now it was just some ideas who needed to be put in form.
We decided to work together and to organize a collective exhibition in the gallery K18. We talked a lot about the subject/thema and about the maniere we would like to work : in collelctif, times for workshop where we could share our experiences around discussions. In one side we have Jade's works, the artist who desire to exhibit her works. And in other side, Clementine the coordinator and curator of the project. She leads the exhibition.
What it taken a lot of time it was the redaction of the call for artist because we didn't know yet for who we will send it. And for us it was the first time that we did this.
Collaborative work is also new for us. We learn to listen each others and we also learn to make compromises. But at the end we work well together and our differences move the project forward. The Open call written, we just need to send it. We are currently in contact with slovenians artists and other eves who want to participate at the exhibition.

EVS avantura Vol. 2-Urška Ženko!

Pomlad in v Gradcu vse drugače.  Mojo strašno arogantno bivšo organizacijo, za katero se je izkazalo, da je zame prijavila lažni projekt, ki ga sploh ne bojo izvajali, sem zamenjala za prijeten in zelo dinamičen Rotor – center za sodobno umetnost. Delam na številnih različnih projektih, ki vključujejo in povezujejo sodobno umetnost s poudarkom na politični in družbeni angažiranosti. Tedne začenjamo z dolgimi pogovori o vsem, kar se dogaja ob kavi in dišečem pecivu, ki gradijo domače in odprto delovno vzdušje. Moji glavni področji trenutno sta priprava na selitev razstave 'Black Sea Calling', ki je rezultat 18 umetnikov v rezidencah v Plovdiv v Bolgariji, kamor potujemo julija, če nam prej seveda uspe pridobiti dovolj sredstev. Drugi projekt pa je 'Nice Places' in vključuje različne mladinske centre na Štajerskem, kjer umetniki in umetnice skupaj z mladimi ustvarjajo na področju, ki zanima mlade in doprinese h kvaliteti njihovega lokalnega prostora ali mladinskega centra, hkrati pa jih seznani z umetniškimi praksami skozi konkretne izkušnje. V juniju odpiramo novo razstavo v naši galeriji, za katero trenutno izbiramo umetnike in njihova dela, vsak mesec pripravimo srečanje s predstavitvami nekaterih graških in rezidenčnih umetnikov, imenovano VorOrt, ta vikend sodelujemo pri programu Dnevi galerij v Gradcu s številnimi dogodki in pri številnih drugih kulturnih dogodkih v Gradcu, ki jim res ni ne konca ne kraja. Za pridobivanje izkušenj v kulturnem polju ne bi mogla biti na boljšem mestu.

 

Nice Places: Sound Truck v Stralleggu z umetnico Marlene Hausegger

Za potrebe mojega socialnega življenja sem si po številnih letih neobstoja v svetu Facebooka morala ustvariti svoj profil. Obstajajo namreč skupine, kjer ljudje (seveda tujci) objavljajo kam grejo pohajkovati ali planinariti, kdaj gredo ven, kje se srečajo v parku in podobno. Nekakšna matica družabnega življenja priseljencev tukaj so Portugalci in Španci, ker so verjetno edini dovolj odprti, da vključijo medse še vse ostale izgubljene ribe v Avstrijskem morju.

Zaradi skrajno mačehovskega odnosa, ki ga ima avstrijska nacionalna agencija do svojih prostovoljcev, bom šele v začetku julija izvedela ali sploh lahko vložimo prošnjo, če lahko ostanem do konca leta, kot je prej trajal moj projekt, ali pa le do konca avgusta, ker ima do takrat ima Rotor prosto mesto zame. Ampak glede na to, kako počasi meljejo ti mlini, nam bo verjetno zmanjkalo časa, še preden bojo sploh odprli kuverto. Ne glede na to, kaj za prostovoljca pomeni projekt – selitev v novo življenje, je namreč za koordinacijske pisarne in nacionalne agencije to le še en papir in ne pokažejo niti trohice razumevanja za to, da me 1. septembra doma pač ne bo čakalo stanovanje s pokrito najemnino in polnim hladilnikom in bi odgovor, do kdaj sem lahko tu, rabila že včeraj.

Evropski mladinski projekti? Še ena veja vseobsegujoče neoliberalistične drže, ki jo vsi z denarjem in močjo lahko gojijo do tistih, ki ne premorejo ne enega, ne drugega.