EVS is coming to end.

2^nd January, end of my EVS project, is unstoppably coming. Some melancholic feeling of ending I had already two months ago during opening of exhibiton TU-BITI. This exhibition was about reflection of my stay in Slovenia. Therefore, it was done from perspective of action that is already finished and now is just reflected - thirty photographs that captured my stay in Maribor and travelling across whole country. Fortunately, this recapitulation was a little bit too early. My EVS was prolonged for one more month so there were still another two months. So, quite a lot of time. And moreover, these last last two months were so busy (in good sense) that I didn't have any time for melancholic feelings anymore.

Full of optimism and enthusiasm, we set in our Pizda group end of November as date of publishing new Pizda, number 4. Of course, after while it was totally obvious that meet this deadline will be impossible for us. Result: just one week for drawing illustrations. Moreover, creativity crisis came in this worst time. How to draw refugee crisis and don't be similar to all those previous caricatures that had been already drawn by someone else? How to draw satirical joke about postmodern nihilism if I am postmodern nihilist a little bit too? Fortunately, some muse finally came. Therefore, some my pictures in new Pizda! 4 you can find. (A little bit of promotion: We printed 200 copies of them so there are still some in Infopeka. I recommend to pick one. It's inspirational reading).

As New Year is coming, my next big task for this time was making calendar for upcoming year. But this shouldn't be any ordinary calendar. This calendar is for ZIZ, theatre group that is fascinated by breasts. Therefore, demanding mission was waiting foor me. 10 people and 12 different poses for each month. That means, 120 photographs of breasts. Really strange EVS experience :-)

Everything is finished now. Celebration of new Pizda successfully happened. Photos for ZIZ calendar are taken and calendar itself is printed in printing office right now. Therefore, now I can just enjoy a few last days. Meeting with friends, visiting favourite places like Piramida, eating delicious čevapčiči in Baščaršija, ...

by Marek Šurkala

TU-BITI / BEING THERE razstava / exhibition

Here we are, almost at the end of our EVS experience. We were able during all that time to discover Slovenia as much as possible, enough to be able to 'give it back' a little bit. In that way, we decided to organize our own exhibition and we named it 'Dasein' (Being there), to refers to Heidegger's philosophy. Here is what we wrote about it to explain our approach:

“How much time do we need to get to know a foreign country? How much time a foreigner needs to get over the „touristic perspective“? For how long he or she is determined to experience only shallow exoticism of a visited country?
Actually, what does mean this „get to know“? Fresh foreign eye maybe could be an advantage. A foreigner is not nostalgic. There is not any relationship to visit countries and cities. Maybe that is him who can see clearly the reality.

French Cécile Bondon and Czech Marek Šurkala are spending 10 months in Slovenia. During this period, they have tried to understand their host country. Different mentalities, traditions, habbits, historical and political background, kind of humour, relation with the nature, language, food, … They had to cope with all of these aspects.
Now, they try to articulate gained experience. Their way of artistic expression is totally different. She draws illustrations. Her work is done with traditional skills, such as mechanical pencil or gouache (a specific kind of paint similar to watercolor but modified to make it opaque). She is mostly an illustrator for books. This time, it is more like a soft parody of educational books or user's manuals.
He takes photographs. He tries with his camera to capture the most truthful image of reality as is possible. Simple composition, absence of strong visual style, wide-angle lens, using old analog technology that prevents to do any manipulations.”

To gain the attention of the potential visitors, we tried to do a strong communication (strong of color contrasts actually!). We mixed two of our images to put it on the announcement poster. The result looks silly, on purpose:

We mixed the three flags (Slovenia, Czech, France), and we painted it on the front wall of the gallery K18, where we had the exhibition, in Koroška cesta:

Then we organized our opening and we were very glad to see a lot of people interested by our work ! For me and Marek, it is our first official exhibition. It is pretty hard to show its own work, I still have some problems with that, but as we are two, it is much easier.

 

For my part, I did something different from my usual illustration work. This time, I did a really realistic work to not be too far from the photographic work of Marek, and also because I didn't want to distort anything from what I saw. So, just as it is, without judgement or approval. My work is divided in two parts: a colored part, which is illustrations of objects, one building, or representative element of one event in Slovenia. And another part is in black and white, only graphite on sketching paper, where I am playing with Slovene words. It is actually portmanteau words, several words in one. Funny or poetic details I saw in some words (for example otrok can be otok. Which means child, and island, so totally different with only one letter less). So I was really looking forward to see the reaction of Slovene people. Some of them liked it very much, some other didn't react, some tried to kill me. No, ahah, joking :P but it was interesting to see :) 

I think that I am going to do again this exhibition in France when I will be back, to make french people discover a little part of Slovenia through my own experience. Nothing is planned yet, so we'll see :)

It is still visible till the 23^rd of November, you can check everything here : https://www.facebook.com/events/527924414039409/ 

Thank you for reading!

Cécile

Vsaka izkušnja EVS je nekaj posebnega. Moja se je začela julija v vzhodni Nemčij.

Sem Lucija Korošec, prihajam iz Sp. Polskave, majhne vasice blizu Maribora. S prostovoljstvom sem se začela ukvarjati po diplomi iz angleščine in pedagogike, da svoje znanje preizkusim še v praksi. Prvo priložnost sem dobila kot prostovoljka pri programu "Nudenje brezplačne učne pomoči", v organizaciji Pekarna Magdalenske mreže, MISC INFOPEKA. 

Nato pa sem opravila še trimesečno pripravništvo v jezikovni šoli v Palermu na Siciliji v okviru projekta Leonardo da Vinci. Poletje na Siciliji je bilo nepozabno, morje, sonce in zabave, zato sem se odločila ostati. Po nekaj mesečnem neuspešnem iskanju dela, medtem ko sem za preživetje občasno individualno poučevala angleščino in prevajala, se je v meni začela prebujati želja po nečem popolnoma drugačnem. Kot sedaj pri beguncih, se mi je v glavi risala slika Nemčije, države, kje je vse urejeno in ima vsak službo. Ker sem nekaj nemščine še znala iz srednje šole, sem se odločila preizkusiti srečo in sem začela iskati svoj projekt evropske prostovoljne službe.

Napisala sem na desetine prošenj, vedela sem le, da si želim delati z otroki kot pedagoginja v Nemško govoreči deželi. Tako da sem se prijavljala na vsa mesta za delo z otroki v Nemčiji in Avstriji. Končno se mi je uspelo dogovoriti z organizacijo v Seelowu, ki organizira prostočasne aktivnosti za otroke. O mestu nisem vedela nič, vedela sem le, da je blizu Berlina, kar mi je bilo všeč.

Po treh mesecih nestrpnega čakanja sem dobila pozitiven odgovor iz nemške Nacionalne agencije. Tako sem se odpravila v Seelow. Iz Zagreba sem letela v Berlin, kjer sta me na letališču pričakala moj mentor Micha in prostovoljka iz Rusije, moja sostanovalka Nastya. Z Nastyo sva se takoj ujeli in kasneje sva večino časa tudi preživeli skupaj. Odpravili smo se proti Seelowu, ki je uro in pol vožnje z vlakom stran. Takrat sem bila tudi prvič v Berlinu, ki je tako velik, da skoraj nisem mogla dojeti. Ko smo končno prispeli v Seelow, sem videla, da je to čisto majhno mestece, skoraj vas. Nastya mi je rekla, da se tukaj ne dogaja kaj preveč. Sama prihaja iz vasi blizu Krasnodarja, a po njenih besedah je le ta večja, kot so mesta v Sloveniji. Kljub temu je bilo moje poletje precej zapolnjeno. Najprej sem kratek čas preživela v hiši, ki je sedež organizacije, kjer sva z Nastyo nadzorovali otroke v Online-Cafeju. To je računalniška soba, kjer otroci igrajo igrice in deskajo po internetu pod nadzorom odraslih. Nekaj časa sva preživeli tudi v Kidsclubu, kjer sva skupaj z deklicami izdelovale nakit in igrale karte.

Nato pa sva z otroci večino poletja preživele na taborih. Moja organizacija ima v lasti objekt v bližnji vasi Lebus, ki leži na bregu reke Odre, čez katero je videti Poljsko, v daljavi pa Frankfurt na Odri. Tam smo z različnimi skupinami otrok preživele več tednov. Hodili smo na kopanje v jezero, slikali smo na majice, izdelovali košare, hodili na pohode v gozd in organizirali otroški disko in skakanje po napihljivem gradu.

Enkrat sem se udeležila tudi tabora v Poljskem v mestu Łagow. To je čudovito turistično mestece v ob velikanskem jezeru. Tukaj smo se zabavali tudi v plezalnem parku, ki ga ima v lasti Slovenec, ki je 40 let živi na Poljskem. To je bil tudi edini Slovenec, kar sem jih do sedaj srečala, odkar sem zapustila Slovenijo. Slovensko je naučil tudi svojo hčerko, ki tudi dela v parku, kar se mi je zdelo zelo lepo.

S koncem poletja je Nastya odšla, ostala sem sama v stanovanju v podstrešju naše hiše, kar je bila za mene povsem nova izkušnja. Pogrešala sem jo in počutila sem se osamljeno, a obenem sem začutila svobodo, kot še nikoli doslej. Lahko sem počela, karkoli sem si želela, ne da bi se ob tem morala ozirati na kogarkoli drugega, kar je zelo prijetno.

A takrat še nisem imela časa samevati. Par dni za tem sem se namreč udeležila uvodnega seminarja za prostovoljce v Weimarju. Ta seminar je bil preprosto fenomenalen. Spoznala sem čudovite ljudi iz cele Evrope, ki nam je bilo vsem skupno to, da opravljamo EVS v Nemčiji. In da imamo Nemčijo radi in bi si po možnosti tu želeli tudi ostati. Še nikoli prej v času mojega prostovoljstva v Nemčiji se še nisem počutila tako sprejeto in razumljeno, kot v tej skupini somišljenikov. Poleg tega sem dobila tudi pomembne informacije o EVS-u in še dodatno uvidela, kako hvaležna sem lahko za Natašo in za svojo pošiljateljsko organizacijo Pekarno Magdalenske mreže, ki mi vedno stojita ob strani in mi odgovorita na vsa vprašanja. Nimajo vsi prostovoljci takšne sreče in kar nekaj jih je imelo resne težave z gostiteljsko organizacijo. Prav zato je udeležba na uvodnem seminarju zelo pomembna.

V jeseni se je v Frizzu začelo novo poglavje, konec je bilo s poletnimi tabori in dogajanje se je usmerilo v hišo. Dodatno je naša organizacija sodelovala na različnih dogodkih v Nemčiji in na Poljskem. Tukaj sem se prvič poskusila pri poslikavi obraza, za kar so otroci rekli, da mi gre kar dobro od rok, sama pa sem do svojega dela še vedno kritična. Na svetovni dan otroka smo organizirali tudi praznovanje na trgu pred hišo, kjer sem sodelovala pri organizaciji zabavne olimpijade in pri poslikavi otrok. Med drugim sem v organizaciji odgovorna tudi za njihovo FB stran, kjer redno objavljam fotografije dogodkov. Na lastno pobudo pa v novembru začnem tudi z učnimi urami angleščine in inštrukcijami angleščine, s katerimi bom popestrila ponudbo v Frizzu.

Moja nemščina je vsak dan boljša, nikoli si nisem mislila, da se bom sposobna brez težav sporazumevati v nemščini, a preklop se je zgodil že nekaj mesecev po prihodu, saj druge izbire preprosto nisem imela, ker tu ljudje angleško ne govorijo. Tudi učne ure pomagajo, saj v Frankfurtu na Odri dvakrat na teden obiskujem pouk s sovrstniki iz Poljske, Slovaške, Sirije, Iraka in drugod.

Novembra mineva četrti mesec mojega bivanja v Nemčiji. V tem času sem veliko doživela, vem pa, da me dosti se čaka, in tega se veselim.

Lucija Korošec

Portret: Prerezala popkovino in odšla v Maribor

Cécile Bondon je stara 29 let in decembra letos bo minilo 10 mesecev, odkar je prišla v Maribor. Potrebovala je življenjsko spremembo, odkrila Evropsko prostovoljsko službo in po študiju uporabnih umetnosti in bitki za preživetje v umetniških vodah prišla kot prostovoljka iz francoskega Nantesa. Dela v INFOPEKI v Pekarni Magdalenske mreže, ki je koordinator mreže prostovoljskih organizacij v Mariboru. V Mariboru se počuti zelo dobro, tukaj je celo našla svoje novo poklicno poslanstvo.


Maribor je veganom prijazno mesto
Nikoli ne pije kave, samo čaj, za kar jo je navdušil oče, ki zelo skrbi za zdravje. Takšna je tudi Cécile, ljubiteljica čajev in gibanja v naravi, veganka, ki je Maribor v primerjavi z Nantesom označila kot naprednega v odnosu do vegetarijancev in veganov, saj je tukaj ponudba v trgovinah in lokalih dobra. Prav tako na dogodkih, ki se jih udeležuje, organizatorji s kulinarično ponudbo vedno mislijo na rastlinojedo občinstvo. Nazadnje je bilo tako tudi na enem večjih Pekarninih dogodkov, filmskem festivalu StopTrik.

Namesto profesorica angleščine postala ilustratorka
Rodila se je v Normandiji, v vasi blizu Lisieuxa, ki je po Lourdesu drugo največje romarsko središče v Franciji. Ker sta s sestro odraščali na precej odročnem kraju, sta otroštvo preživeli v domišljijskih igrah, arheoloških izkopavanjih okoli hiše, veliko sta sanjarili. Sploh Cécile, ki prav posebnemu otroštvu pripisuje, da je že pri sedmih narisala svoj prvi strip. Usoda jo je na umetniške tire povabila še drugič, ko je morala ponavljati maturo in zato ni odšla na študij angleščine. V vmesnem času je našla zasebno umetniško šolo v Nantesu, se tja vpisala na štiriletni študij in se navdušila nad ilustratorstvom. Premik v oddaljeno mesto je bil zanjo velik korak: »Lahko rečem, da sem se ponovno rodila, saj sem se s selitvijo osamosvojila od preveč zaščitniških staršev. Nantes sem prečesala, raziskovala dogajanje. Pred tem nisem hodila na zabave, poskusila alkohola ali imela fanta. Potem se je to spremenilo«.
Po študiju se je kot umetnica na svobodi poskušala preživljati z ilustracijo: »To poteka tako, da moraš intenzivno pošiljati svoja dela oglaševalskim agencijam, založbam, tiskarnam, ljudi nenehno opominjati nase, klicati, biti skoraj vsiljiv, skratka se dokazovati. Pošiljati je treba tematske ilustracije, zdaj bi bili aktualni jesenski motivi, potem pride božič, zima, pustovanje, pomlad, skratka, na vsako občo temo moraš imeti pripravljen kup svojih del in jih pošiljati okrog. Delo je seveda žal slabo plačano, opremila sem eno knjigo za otroke in sodelovala pri nekaj manjših projektih. Po osmih letih je bilo dovolj. Začutila sem, kot da moja energija odteka in da sem obtičala«.

Au revoir la France, dober dan Slovenija!
Cono udobja je zapustila še drugič. Najprej je nameravala k sestri, ki se je že pred časom preselila v Berlin, nato je odkrila EVS (European voluntary service) in preko tega Pekarno Magdalenske mreže s programom Do the (R)Evolution!, ki vključuje tudi področje kulture in umetnosti, z lastno galerijo na Koroški 18, s publikacijami, za katere lahko prispeva ilustracije itd. Tako je namesto Anglije in Švedske, kamor je sprva nameravala, odšla v Slovenijo: »Svoji družini in prijateljem sem morala razložiti, da je Slovenija čisto v redu država in da tukaj ni mrzlo kot na severu.
Težko so razumeli, da me zanima nova kultura, da potrebujem pavzo od ilustriranja oz. da bom to počela na drugačen način. V Pekarni prostovoljci nismo nek ključni člen, vendar počnemo veliko različnih stvari. V ospredju je timsko delo, kar mi zelo ustreza, veliko sodelujem še z drugim prostovoljcem tukaj Marekom Šurkalo (intervju z njim tukaj), s katerim oblikujeva plakate, vabila na dogodke,  na festivalu StopTrik sem s kamero beležila dogajanje in pripravila dokumentarec, delala intervjuje. Z otroki sem v tem letu izvedla delavnice risanja, origamija in izdelovanja lutk. Če ne stane veliko denarja, lahko tukaj počnem marsikaj. Kdaj pa kdaj pa pomagam pripraviti in počistiti prostor«.

Mislila sem, da bom v Mariboru postala debela
Tudi sicer z 270 evri, ki jih prejme za hrano in žepnino od svojih gostiteljev, torej Pekarne Magdalenske mreže, lahko preživi. Stanovanjske stroške ima pokrite. Največ denarja porabi za hrano, saj si kupuje veliko sveže zelenjave in sadja: »Ko sem prišla v Maribor, sem se zelo bala, da se bom zredila, saj so tukaj razdalje tako majhne, v Nantesu sem nenehno kolesarila od enega do drugega konca, tukaj pa skoraj nič. Sedaj se trudim telovaditi v stanovanju in hoditi čim več v naravo«.
Živi v stanovanju s slovensko sostanovalko, ki ne govori angleško, zato se je še bolj primorana potruditi s slovenščino, ki jo že zelo dobro obvlada. Cécile je po besedah njene učiteljice slovenščine Urške (brezplačni tečaj slovenščine v času bivanja tukaj pripada vsem prostovoljcem EVS) zelo nadarjena za naš jezik.

Delo
Cécile Bondon je v Mariboru na lastno iniciativo začela z dvema zanimivima projektoma. Te dni bo ravno štiri mesece, odkar na blogu (noče izdati naslova) vsak dan beleži, kaj je počela in kako se ob tem počuti. Na ta način skupaj s kolegom nekdanjim »Erasmus študentom« Špancem Miquelom, ki se je medtem že odselil iz Maribora, premaguje občutek tujstva, se posveča sebi in ostaja ustvarjalna. Še bolj ustvarjalna pa je na nekem drugem blogu (http://lepetitcroquis.tumblr.com/), kjer  skrbi za to, da ne bi preveč »padla ven« iz ilustracije, tako skupaj z Belorusom Edwardom (ki je mesto obiskal med nedavnim festivalom StopTrik in prav tako že odpotoval) slikata v namišljenem spletnem ateljeju in objavljata skice, študije, slike ter komentirata delo drug drugega: »Ko sem še študirala, smo seveda slikali žive modele, to je moja strast, sedaj mi je pri tem v pomoč internet. Ampak to je vaja, ki se ji ne odpovem. V Mariboru sem tudi prišla v stik z animacijo, animiranimi filmi in to je tisto, kar želim početi. Udeležila se bom še delavnic na decembrskem festivalu Animateka v Ljubljani, sem že dogovorjena s programskim direktorjem Igorjem Prasselom. In tega se zares veselim. Z animacijo se želim ukvarjati, ko se vrnem v Francijo.«

Mesto
Maribor ji je všeč, seveda pa ne gre brez razlik, ki jih Cécile opisuje kot razlike v detajlih. Skupaj s fantom Cédricom, ki jo je v septembru na kratko obiskal (pred tem so bili tukaj tudi njeni starši, sama pa je Francijo obiskala za teden dni poleti), sta opazila, da je mestna razsvetljava zvečer in ponoči zelo šibka, prav tako je bolj zastrta svetloba v lokalih, medtem ko je pri njih vse veliko bolj razsvetljeno: »Zelo nenavadni, kot neresnični, se mi zdijo prostori, kot je denimo Salon uporabnih umetnosti ali Vetrinjski dvor, saj so glede na majhnost mesta zelo veliki. Zelo lepi, a zelo veliki in kaj takega pri nas ne obstaja. Prav tako čudovit, a hkrati glede na mesto spet zelo velik, je mestni park. Všeč mi je, ker lahko hodiš po travi ali greš v park tudi zvečer, kar se v Nantesu ne more zgoditi, ker je vse tako urejeno in po travi je prepovedano hoditi. Tudi hribi okrog Maribora so krasni in ljudje imajo bolj spoštljiv odnos do narave.«

Mariborčani
Po eni strani so Mariborčani po besedah mlade Francozinje takšni, da rečejo, ah, saj lahko to tudi kasneje, kadar pa delajo, so zelo poslušljivi, sledijo navodilom in zagnano delajo, vendar so pri tem manj strastni: »Ko sem recimo imela delavnico z otroki v Art campu, so samo pogledali, kaj počnem, in začeli delat. Niso pa skoraj nič spraševali. Navdušena sem, kako dobro tukaj vsi govorijo angleško, tudi otroci.
Kar je še zelo drugače kot pri nas, so sestanki. Če sklepam po Pekarni, nenehno nekaj sestankujete, skličete se skupaj in debatirate.«

Sporočilo v steklenički
Cécile Bondon iz Maribora odhaja sredi decembra in se že veseli osvajanja novega znanja na področju animacije, iskala bo možnosti izobraževanja v Franciji, pa tudi manjše projekte izven Francije, zelo ji je denimo všeč koncept  GuestRoomMaribor (http://www.guestroommaribor.si/), ki je eden izmed programov organizacije gostiteljice: »Da grem za kak teden ali mesec nekam, kjer lahko ustvarjam, se učim. Vmes pa bom doma pridno vadila klavir in brazilske bobne.«

Za božič bo torej že s svojimi. A njen nemirni in sedaj že osamosvojeni duh jo bo najbrž še velikokrat peljal preko meja, morda se kdaj še vrne tudi v Maribor. Kjer vsi nosijo s seboj vodo v stekleničkah. Kar je še ena posebnost, ki ji bo ostala v spominu. Sedaj vodo v steklenički s seboj prenaša tudi sama.

Avtorica: Petra Bauman, MISC INFOPEKA, Pekarna Magdalenske mreže Maribor

Intervju: Slovenija je zelo podobna Češki, kljub temu sem doživel mali kulturni šok

Marek Šurkala je star 26 let. V Maribor (v Pekarno Magdalenske mreže, kulturni center Pekarna) je kot prostovoljec pri projektu EVS (Evropska prostovoljna služba) prišel letos februarja, domov se bo po desetih mesecih vrnil konec leta.

Slovak po rodu že od rojstva živi v majhnem češkem mestecu Haviřov. Menda je kraj podoben našemu Velenju, zato vsakomur raje pove, da je iz 15 kilometrov oddaljene Ostrawe, tretjega največjega češkega mesta. Tja se je Marek tudi podal na študij filozofije. V intervjuju smo  med drugim izvedeli tudi, da je obiskal že več slovenskih vršacev kot povprečni Slovenec in da ga na živahni Poštni ulici ponoči ne boste videli.

Kdaj si se prvič srečal s pojmom prostovoljstvo?
Na fakulteti sem zadnje leto poslušal tudi predmet »civilna družba« in 30 ur prakse pri tem predmetu sem moral opraviti v neki nevladni organizaciji. Odšel sem v nek mladinski center v Haviřovu, kjer je bilo prostovoljsko delo že vzpostavljeno. Tam sem se med drugim družil z mladino z manj možnostmi, poučeval kitaro itd. Po končani obveznosti in po koncu študija sem »prostovoljil« še dve leti.

Zakaj si se odločil še za prostovoljsko delo v drugi državi?
Ko sem končal študij, nisem točno vedel, kaj bi, nekako si še nisem predstavljal vse to z redno službo itd. Želel sem spremembo, ne pa iti po klasični poti šola-služba-družina. Vsaj eno leto sem želel početi nekaj drugega.

Zakaj Slovenija?
Država mi ni bila toliko pomembna, iskal sem nek kulturni center in projekt, ki sem ga našel v Pekarni Magdalenske mreže, mi je zelo ustrezal. Ponekod mi ni ustrezal termin, spet druge organizacije so imele zaradi podobne usmeritve že dogovorjeno neke vrste izmenjavo med svojimi prostovoljci. Tako sem končal tukaj v Mariboru, predvsem zaradi projekta, saj me najbolj zanima kultura. Organizacija, ki me je poslala, je v Pragi in se imenuje Culture centre Mlejn. Vendar tam pred tem nisem bil aktiven. Zanimivo, da sem iz »mlina« prišel v »pekarno«. Ko sem izvedel, da sem sprejet, sem bil zelo vesel, vedel sem, da je Slovenija blizu, da ne bo nekih radikalnih sprememb.

Kaj si vedel o Sloveniji pred prihodom?
Moj brat je pred tem že obiskal Slovenijo in ko sem mu povedal, da grem v Slovenijo, je rekel, pa to je super, Slovenija je čudovita. Moj prvi vtis je bil točno takšen. Brat je imel prav. Nataša, ki koordinira projekt EVS v Infopeki, res dobro opravlja svoje delo in zaradi tega nisem imel nobenih težav, počutil sem se sprejeto, domače.

Kaj počneš kot prostovoljec?
Moji dnevi potekajo zelo raznoliko. Ker me veseli grafično oblikovanje, sem udeležen pri pripravi časopisa Pizda, kjer sem zadolžen za ilustracije in fotografije.  Nagovarjajo me, da bi kot filozof nekaj napisal, a doslej se za to še nisem opogumil. Sodelujem tudi pri potopisih. Pri projektu Dobiš-daš prihajajo sem v prostore Infopeke otroci iz socialno ogroženih družin, s katerimi se igramo razne igre, saj se zaradi jezikovne bariere kaj veliko z njimi ne morem pogovarjati.  Imel sem tudi celodnevno delavnico z njimi. Prav tako sem pred kratkim imel delavnico Prazgodovinski photoshop, kjer smo v temnici v Infopeki razvijali fotografske filme. Za svoje slovenske prijatelje sem pripravil tudi izbor klasičnih čeških filmov, da bi spoznali in bolje razumeli Čehe in češko kulturo. Zato sem izbral film Černý Petr režiserja Miloša Formana. Ta film res dobro odslikava tipičen češki značaj. Nato smo si pogledali še Ucho, ki je bil v moji državi prepovedan dvajset let, opisuje grozljive politične procese, ki so se na Češkoslovaškem dogajali v 50-ih. Dokler sem tu, bi rad zavrtel še filma Kouř in Dědictví aneb Kurvahošigutntág. Opisujeta zadnjo leto socializma in prva leta po vijolični revoluciji. No, trenutno pripravljam en bener za cikel Pekarninih izobraževanj.

Te moti, da za svoje delo ne prejmeš plačila?
Ne, menim, da je EVS lepa priložnost za mlade in na denar sploh ne mislim.

Kaj počneš v prostem času?
Obožujem hribolazenje, zato se vsak konec tedna nekam podam. Bil sem že po Pohorju, v Kamniško-Savinjskih Alpah, Julijskih Alpah, Karavankah. Spomladi sem začel z manjšimi vzponi, kot so Boč, Donačka gora, Konjiška gora, Rogla, Uršlja gora, itd. Poleti sem bil višje, na Golici, Peci, Ledinskem vrhu, Stolu, Grintovcu, v Domu Planika pod Triglavom. Ker zelo rad fotografiram, me povsod spremlja fotoaparat. Tudi, ko grem na svoj običajni večerni sprehod po Mariboru, na Piramido, Kalvarijo, … Bil sem tudi v Ljubljani, Celju, …Ta vikend pa bom šel v Velenje. Manjka mi še južni del Slovenije. Nekaj časa še imam za raziskovanje.

Kje živiš?
V stanovanju skupaj s petimi slovenskimi študenti medicine v bližini Pekarne. Imam svojo sobo, ostalo si delimo.

Kaj pa nočno življenje, si že kaj raziskal?
(smeh) Ne, nisem tak tip človeka, ne hodim v klube, plesat itd. Včasih grem posedet s kakšno družbo v kakšen lokal, to je vse. Včasih grem v GT22, kjer je Mišnica (temnica za razvijanje fotografij), z njimi sem vzpostavil nekaj stikov, saj jih zanima enako kot mene – fotografija. Vesel bi bil, če bomo ohranili stike, kaj sodelovali.

Kaj ti je pri prostovoljstvu še posebej všeč?
Delo v skupini. V času študija precej časa preživiš sam, za knjigami, tukaj mi je všeč delo v skupini, saj se o vsem skupaj posvetujemo, sklepamo kompromise. To mi je všeč. Prostovoljstvo priporočam, saj je to odlična priložnost za spoznavanje drugih držav, nevladnih organizacij in njihovega pomembnega poslanstva, pridobiš nova znanja (v mojem primeru na področju grafičnega oblikovanja in organiziranja dogodkov), ki jih lahko kasneje uporabiš tudi v profesionalnem življenju.

Kaj te je v Sloveniji najbolj presenetilo, si morda doživel kak kulturni šok?
Slovenija in Češka sta si zelo podobni, počutim se res kot doma. Nisem doživel kakšnega kulturnega šoka. Edina stvar pa je, ki je zelo drugačna. Tukaj opažam to veliko nostalgijo za komunističnimi časi. Pri nas, ki smo tudi bili komunistična država, sicer bolj pod vplivom Rusije, si nihče več ne želi tistih časov nazaj. Tukaj pa vidim rdeče zvezde in ostalo simboliko, ki nikogar ne moti. Pri nas je do tega velika averzija.

Kaj še posebej maraš v Mariboru, kaj boš pogrešal?
Vse. To mesto je prekrasno. Če ne bi bilo toliko brezposelnosti, bi bilo odlično za življenje. Reka, hribčki, do katerih lahko dostopaš peš, če želiš kaj resnejšega, greš na Pohorje, za kolesarjenje je odlična Mariborska vinska cesta. Haviřov in Ostrawa sta industrijski območji, ni tako lepo kot tukaj. Decembra se vračam v Haviřov. Malo sem žalosten, moram reči.

Kaj boš počel po vrnitvi?
To je še odprto. Zelo odprto. Verjetno si bom iskal službo. Skoraj vse, kar se tiče mojega področja, se seveda dogaja v Pragi, niti ne v Ostrawi, kaj šele v Haviřovu. Mogoče bom moral poiskati delovne priložnosti v Pragi.

Kakšen se ti zdi slovenski jezik?
Ko sem se pripravljal na prihod, sem se malo učil s pomočjo slovarja in zdelo se mi je, da se bom slovenščine hitro naučil, sploh teh osnovnih stavkov. Ko pa sem prišel, pa tudi teh osnovnih fraz nisem razumel, včasih niti dober dan ne. Še posebej ne v Mariboru, kjer je poseben dialekt. Danes, če ljudje govorijo počasi, pa mnogo razumem.

Zaupaj nam še svojo življenjsko filozofijo in svojega najljubšega filozofa?
Poskušam se izogibati dogmatizmu, zato je skeptični Sokrat moj najljubši filozof. Edina prava modrost je vedeti, da ne veš ničesar.

Avtorica: Petra Bauman, MISC INFOPEKA, Pekarna Magdalenske mreže Maribor

Let's talk about Animation Drawing !

This week, in Maribor, there is the 'Stop Trik' festival. It is a Slovenian/Polish festival about stop motion animation, and it is the only one in Europe now, which is entirely dedicated to stop motion. The first edition came out in 2011.

We already had a lecture on monday in the morning, about politics and philosophy into animated movies, by Michał Bobrowski and Olga Bobrowska, respectively programme director and festival director of Stop Trik.

And while we're at it, I will speak about animation movies in general (not only stop motion). Because I am really passionate about it. For me, it is the best field of art, the most complete. When you are working in or around the field of animation, you can do anything in the field of art. You can be of course a drawer, a painter, an animator, an illustrator. You can be a scenarist, a film director, a story boarder, film editor, a sound designer... You also can be a stylist, a photographer, a sculptor, a plastic art artist, a musician, an actor, a dancer... Because all of this can be needed in an animation movie. For example, when you are doing animation, and when you try to animate a character, you have to act first to understand which movement you need to put in this character. So, you are some kind of actor, with a smaller public (your team). Here is an example in this video, at 1:40 (and the whole video is a making of, also interesting to see, it takes place in Les Gobelins, one of the best animation school in the world).

https://vimeo.com/48938704

Techniques of Animation

Do you remember those people tight in some dark suit, with little balls all around their bodies? This is called motion capture (actually it allows to save time and energy, rather than creating all the movements, but then it looks natural for sure).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfOV25rkHCI

 There is of course the traditional way of drawing, on the paper, in 2D, with an inclined desk with an animation disc which is also a light table to see the different layers (You can see it concretely in the first video of this article, at 2:49). Before and not really today, the coloring part was also traditional with most of the time gouache for the background, and flash (kind of painting between acrylic and gouache) for the characters. In that family of techniques, you have different ways to obtain an animation: you have the classic animation (like the old disney's), the flip book, or the rotoscope (using a real movie and drawing upon it:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAuRS0TeFhw ).. Cut out animation, which is near stop motion because you take pictures for each move, and the difference with traditional animation is that you don't need to draw all over again your character. You have puppets, objects and background made out of paper. Example here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBConNL_C_k.

In 2D still you also have computer assisted animation. It's possible to have one traditional part made, and another part on the computer, for coloring and layering (putting elements under or over others). You have Flash animation (a lot of animated series are made like this today, you can easily recognize it), made out of that software of Adobe named Flash. And, you can also draw directly in your computer, for example in Photoshop.

Of course, you also know about 3D animation. In this family, we have the classic 3D movies (Disney or Pixar. Personally I think they are doing great stuff). We already talked about a technique which is motion capture. And I will include stop motion again, with 3D objects this time. Like Wallace and Gromit made out of clay, check it out immediately if you don't know it, here is an entire movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLQCgg9HvBU Actually, stop motion animation is a technique itself. Inside this family, you have the cut out we just saw, the puppets animation.. You also have Pixilation, in which you animate live actors instead of objects, clay or paper.

You can have also a bit of everything combined, 3D, flash, photoshop animation, photo for the background, special effects... In this good animation series: https://vimeo.com/60408764 . About the traditional part, it is not lost, there is still productions made in traditional technique. There is just more computer made productions than before.

There is a lot more techniques (Gif animation, After Effect to do motion design.. Which is used a lot to do commercial small ads on webpage, or to do more elaborated work).

Animation is not only for children :)

Now I will show you all what we can share through an animation movie. Nowadays, There is so much artists doing this art, and so much various styles of animation that it's crazy. Let me show you some of my favorites. They are mostly short movies in 2D.

First I have to bring a little bit what I saw on Monday during the lecture. Animation can be also useful to bring messages through symbols and metaphors. Like in the work of Zdzisław Kudła, a polish film director, scenarist, and who was active during communism. Or Jan Švankmajer, a Cezch surealist director. They are not my favorites, but this is a first kind of subjects for animation.

This is an extract of 25 other movies, which look like real paintings. According to my researches, it reflects the key moments of the history of animation: The adventures of Pinocchio by Gianluigi Toccafondo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8Z-RZYysbk you can see that he used painting, and also for sure a little bit of rotoscope with distorted images. At least real images for the faces.

Animation to 'illustrate' one work of Lakmé, as the opera is not so popular nowadays, this kind of work can help to introduce young people or everybody in it. I used to watch it when I was little: The 3D is old now, but it's still great. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFUMiDqTVEo

Animation about memory, non linear narration.

https://vimeo.com/77729428

Strong and engaged

https://vimeo.com/55084640

Of course animation can be funny :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6ZmMjMdrqs

Silly and have off-the-wall humor

https://vimeo.com/41686042

It can be video clip, be animated according to the beat and the atmosphere of a music

https://vimeo.com/43028923

https://vimeo.com/125508172

Speak about human problem like shyness, or.. (I won't say it for the last one!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xp22IYL2uU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qCbiCxBd2M

Be about Speed dating and human behaviors

https://vimeo.com/48011287

Be horrific (For all audience though, this is an EVS blog! :D):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ-n72sADsg

Be weird or disturbing (in a gentle way)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8sjB3RYlRY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y27YW2WHXWs

https://vimeo.com/13776542

https://vimeo.com/46233381

Have interesting making off and studies:

https://vimeo.com/66117779

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INQx-Lzs8mU (by the way, Richard William is one of the best, and his book 'Animator's survival kit' is a reference for every animator beginner).

And to close this article, I will finish with a little short movie in stop motion to go back to Stop Trik festival subject. For this movie, Pes won an Academy Award nomination in 2013:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNJdJIwCF_Y

I kindly invite you to watch also the related videos, to discover more animation movies. I am sure I've still missed a lot of amazing videos. And I'm waiting impatiently for the new creations!

To be continued!

Cécile

Delavnica za otroke / Workshop for children

Yesterday, I gave my first workshop for children (in Infopeka). This workshop was about creating a puppet out of recycled material, paper toilet rolls. Then, when the puppet would be ready, the children could use a little theatre I made out of cardboard, and make his own puppet show!

The last one took place in the big park, during Lent festival. Then Nataša my coordinator suggested that I could do it in Infopeka. In this place we didn't know yet if the children will come. We thought that it'll be complicated, but actually quite a lot came!

The first time in the park, it was a bit more improvised. So this time I tried to find some systems to make it easier. I noticed that some children needs some patterns, so I made pieces of the different parts in kit form. There were the duck's patterns, and the dog's patterns. They could copy it and cut it out. Of course they could make whatever they wanted ! For example, one kid made a beautiful giraffe! But I hadn't solve another problem, about the knots, which are quite difficult to do especially tight (and not too much either!) and in the right place. But for the next time I think I have an idea! Anyway, it was a nice workshop, it was pleasant for me and I think that the children enjoyed it also!
I am also glad that some adults came !

Yay! :)

Cécile

Summer travels

Živijo,

This summer in Infopeka there is not so much things to do. The activity is a bit off, and also Maribor, just after the Lent festival. So me and Marek we've been to the sea side to check if it's truely beautiful ;) and of course it is !!

Here is Piran. The first town we visited, and we loved it. And as I visited Venice in June, it made me think a lot about Italy. Those narrow streets, the laundry drying outside between two windows, or the old pebbledash on the walls. And the people are also mixing italian and slovene language, we could hear 'Ciao!' in every corner. We also could swim on one beach with big stones, and there were not a lot of people. Of course there were some typical beaches with sand, and too crowded. But they are not in that little piece of earth, with that lovely tower at the end, you have to go back a little bit more. Here, one of those streets that Marek enjoyed to photograph:

 We also saw Portorož, but only the countryside and near the sea by bus, but nothing impacted us.
Then we moved to Izola, and we figured out that it was quite similar to Piran. Same architecture, same big tower in the center, and influence of Italy. We even passed by some kind of 'celebration of the tomatoe', in a pedestrian little narrow street. People were speaking loudly and on every table we saw cooked tomatoes in big saucepans, or some competition of the bigger tomatoe.
But this is the only thing that I personnaly liked in Izola, it's still less charming than Piran.
Then we went to Koper, and then we were even more disappointed, even if in some streets we found again those typical mediterranean kind of streets. This town is more like industrial, and it's also interesting to see anyway.

Cécile

Fotografije - Dundee, Škotska

Foto: Klemen Kamenik

February, March, April, May, June – 5 months already?!

My European Voluntary Service started in February. At the beginning, spending almost whole year in foreign country seemed like quite a long time. Not now. Five months already passed. That means my EVS is in the half. What I managed to do during this time? As I said earlier, EVS volunteer can work by very various activities in Pekarna Magdalenske Mreže. But let me to focus just on one, photographing.

As enthusiastic photography fan I somehow received role of Infopeka's „proffesional“ official photographer. Photographing of events, photographing of workshops, photographing of lectures, etc. Simply, a lot of fun. Of course, even photographing can be sometimes boring a little bit. There is really hard to find something interesting on photographing the lecture if speaker has only one emotion in his face for whole two hours of his talking. Here is one example.

But much more often situation is totally different. Horrible light conditions, working with unknown people, lack of time, etc. Especially Dan za spremembe (Day of change) was full of such „problems“. Photographing handicapped people. Moving from one event to another without possibility to real participation. Photographing Greenpeace event in total darkness without using flash, etc.

Photographing sometimes can be even dangerous a little bit. Some of Infopeka's volunteers are very active in public engagement. Because of that, I was also participating as photographer on two protests against privatisation in Ljubljana. It is very interesting experience to do such a thing. Especially when your language skills are not very good. Not all people like to pe photographed so sometimes can happen that that somebody start to shout: „Ne slikaj!“ and a lot of other words which I didn't understand. I can only estimate their meaning. Simply, photographing for Infopeka is real challenge. 

Marek Šurkala

Some stories and tips about drawing

STILL LIFE

What for?

On the 9^th of June, I gave one of my first drawing lesson about how to draw a still life.It was quite new for me, especially for giving this in english. I remember that I actually did one lesson among friends of mine in Nantes (France), but this was obviously into my comfort zone. This is also what is about EVS, get out of that comfort zone.

Before that day I tried to find beautiful objects for the composition. Usually for my own exercises I don't try to compose something, because I consider that the most beautiful subject is our own mess. The remains of a diner, the open laptop on a messy bed, tossed clothes, books or papers around... Because it has storytelling. We can feel that there is life behind, rather than just put some flowers into a jar, then on a lovely tablecloth, just with the purpose of drawing it, because it means nothing to you.

But for this lesson i had to find objects, so I've been to Salon Uporabnih Umetnosti, because it's a nice vintage place. I could borrow old objects, which already have a story: a teapot, cups, glasses, bottles, a lamp converted into a bowl to put fresh fruits at the last moment. I tried to create a scene with those object, to make it lively. It was quite okay with that composition, but I've decided to put two compositions, one simple and one more complicated. On the complicated one I've put an old alarm clock, a light bulb, a bottle... Those object had basically no link between them, it was just made for the exercise, with only difficult things to draw. The people were clever enough to not choose this one.

The purpose of the workshop was to draw that composition with only grey values, in an 'academic way'. It means with no personal 'style', but just as it is, with a particular way to built the shadows, according to the volume, with hatchings, according to the source of light. This is a really good exercise, and what is really the best is doing it as much as possible, trying to draw everything around us, outside, landscapes, people. No need to go to Africa or New Zealand to find the most interesting animals or landscapes. You can basically go into the train station, a shopping mall, a museum, taking live model courses, draw yourself, or go to the zoo. Everything is a potential subject. You can also work through pictures. The best though, is drawing the reality because your brain will have to convert the 3D into 2D. You must try to think that you are a 5 years old child, and that you've never seen those things in your life, and/or that you don't understand how it's working. A lot of people make that mistake, they draw what they know, and not what they see. It is only the idea they have of the reality, and trust me, it's never accurate.

There is absolutely no point in just trying to reproduce a picture as a final artwork. It is a means, not an end.

The students were good and got caught up with the game. But I noticed something bad, is that a lot of them felt frustrated to not be able to do it as they expected, and they were basically too severe with themselves. It was their first drawing lesson !

In my opinion, the ability of drawing in the minds of people in general is too much considered as 'something we have or not'. It is denying all the work we need behind before having a correct level. And the bad thing is that a lot of people give up because they think they are not good enough. They just need to keep it up... I believe only in the capacity of improving quickly, this is the only gift we can talk about. Some people of course progress quicker, it's true in everything, but they do work. And then when you know how to draw the reality- you don't stop- you can play with it and break the rules, find your style, etc, but very important, not before (breaking the rules). Study hard the reality and you will be able to draw the most crazy stuff on the paper, simply because your brain will have that library of datas and will be able to play with it and it will have consistency.And above all, it helps you to understand what you are drawing, how it's working. Even if it's about a monster with four arms (volumes, muscles, perspective, attitude, proportion...).Even if you do caricatures, characters with big noses (like some classic french comic books:) ) as long as we can recognize it, you need to have the basis. There is no shame in studying the reality, the best artists have references when they work. There is actually any merit in saying that it comes out from your head, because it is simply impossible for the result to be good, unless you studied your subject hard like hell, but usually people who are proud to say it just didn't. So basically I present to you some of my favorite artists, working on their paintings or illustrations, or giving tips, with obvious references. If you keep all of that in mind, you'll go far away. Something else you need to know : you will mainly get unsatisfied, it is part of the job, you can be happy about some results, but it's never the end of your progress, you will always always go further and further all your life long. You'll be like the wine, better through the years ;)

Disney illustrator and animator Aaron Blaise video tip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnrqUx4XhtM

Illustrator James Gurney video tip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=75&v=Zwp6RfRx60A

The same guy, using here references of the begining ot the century for a steampunk style illustration (which takes place in a famous square of Nantes, my former town! So obviously highly documented background as well)

Illustrator Norman Rockwell:

Painter and illustrator Gil Elvgren:

Illustrator Paul Bonner 

 This is his studio. For this step, he is using a picture of mountains for help about colors. And a lot of his previous sketches and studies he is keeping around.

James Jean sketches:

Please stay curious, not only about drawing, but everything: dance, movies, books, radio, exhibitions, music, theatre, design, sculpture, history, geography, science, documents, fashion... And also: people, your friends, landscapes, buildings, animals, your boy/girlfriend sleeping... Everything!  And above all: enjoy.. It will be visible in your work. 
Don't fear the fact of being wrong. You can always start all over again and nobody will see it. 
Thank you for reading this post! 

Cécile, from France