Maribor ...

Dear readers,
my name is Gilles, I'm 29 years old and I from France, Limoges. I come to Slovenia to be volunteer inside the organization Pekarna Magdalenske mreze at Maribor for 10 months.

I left Paris on the 2 of September by the bus, the travel was long, 20 hours, but I had time to enjoy the different landscape and prepared myself for my new life. I arrived on the 3 of Septembre in the middle of the afternoon at Maribor. In the railroad station hall, I finally meet in real life my EVS Arman, and Lucas and Natasa our coordinator. They accompanied me to my flat with. I live near to the main square, in the Jewish quarter. I was very tired after this long trip and I went directly to bed to be ready for the week.

The firsts days at work was more into observation and discover the coworkers, the workplace and explanation about the structure and actions. Days after days, we learn more about different points of the organization. Primoz proposes of us to have a historical visit of Maribor. We talk about the red bridge, talk about the architecture of the casino and the main square. As well, we visit Lent quarter and see the Oldest Vine in the world and go to the stadium because the football club is important in Maribor. On Friday, we went to « La cantina » for a dinner with the team Pekarna, it’s was really great and we meet our two mentor, Maja and Matevž.
During the weekend, I discover by myself Maribor with my beautiful bike (named Darko) than Pekarna rented me. I ride near to the river Drava and enjoy the beautiful landscapes than Slovenia are.

We went to the Galerija K18 to visit the exhibition of Simon Farid. This exhibition is about the representation of the guide into mass society and cultural institution. The works of Simon Farid is like a report of a different kind of research about the presence of the guide inside movie by chronological issues, or a list of artists have been worked guide into museums before the celebrity. Galerija K18 is a gallery for promoting the contemporary art scene. Pekarna programs cultural events and exhibitiosn inside this gallery. Every Monday we are going to Vetrinjski dvor for the Sedmi Glas program. Sedmi Glas is a program created by the organization to invite people who are learning Slovenian languaget through culture. This time it was a workshop about theatre play. The trainer was Barbara and she introduce Theatre of the oppressed by the Brazilian author Augusto Boal. It’s a theater trying to include any kind of people (amateur / confirmed) in play to try and talk about the different type of topics. The topics and the scenography is generated by themselves. It’s was interesting to try because I never try this kind of theatre.

During week we discover and meet some partners. We meet Damijan, we will work with him for Filmopeka. Filmopeka is an event for watching a film and have time for questioning or share your feeling after the watching. Damijan work for the Slovenian Télévision, he programming films for the channel. I think he will be a good helper for this project. We are also meet Urska and Jan during this week, they work in an organization for helping Refugees named «Slovene Philanthropy», we speak about the possibility to create a partnership. We also went to GT22, this is an artistic place with a space for exhibition, theater room, dark room..… Gregor was nice and invite into a Cyanotype workshop. This workshop was really interesting to make workshop with teenagers about analog photography.

 

I went to Ljubljana during the weekend and discovered the joys of Slovenian carpooling named « Prevoz ». I met a girl during the trip and we became a friend. We went to a concert at the Museum of Modern Art on Friday night and I joined colleagues for Saturday to see Gramatik, a Slovenian DJ in Kino Šiška. I enjoyed the architecture of Ljubljana. It's a strange mix of art nouveau and modernism. I also discovered the alternative space of Metelkova and the different clubs, including the Klub Tiffany, the LGBT + club of Ljubljana.
Sunday, I helped Arman to uninstall the exhibition in gallery K18.

The next week, we went to Lasko for the arrival training. Lasko is a small city in the center of Slovenia. This city is famous for the beer factory. The training was into a hostel and thermal/aquatic center. We meet all EVS just arrived in Slovenia. We participate in some activity to understand the meaning of EVS and talking about fears and feelings. The most important for me was to have a chance to meet other people in other organizations who live the same adventure than me. I meet a new friend and I hope to create a network of volunteers. The last day of the training we are the possibility to meet some mid-term and I meet some people interested and active on an organization for LGBTQI+ rights.

On Monday, we talk about the preparation of Stop Trik festival. Stop Trik festival is a festival of stop motion animation film. This project was created by EVS volunteers many years ago and stay alive. This is a huge festival with projection, film contest, workshop, and exhibition. On Monday and Tuesday, we take time to create some stencil and cine lightbox for the festival. In the same time, we help student for the Protest Climate Change to make some banners and slogans because the march is Friday.

Friday’s event brought a lot of people back and we walked through the city singing different kinds of slogans for ecology. It’s was a real interesting experience.

See you in October for the next episode.
Gilles