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/