Blog November 2019

Dear readers,

November was a very attractive month. The first week, we went to see Joker at the movies with Sedmi Glas. I really like the performance of the main character during this film and the photography. This film illustrates how easy it is to go crazy in this modern and crazy world.
We were also invited to a training session with young Erasmus volunteers to present the European volunteered programme. It was an enriching experience for me because I was able to practise my English in front of a young audience. On Wednesday, I helped Kaja with the installation of the retrospective exhibition of Pekarna's actions. We made a selection from Gregor Sabolir's photographs to have a coherent exhibition. It was a pleasant moment and Kaja and I were very happy with the result and the work. During the evening, with Nataša we participated in a volunteer promotion event at Štuk, a student bar near the Faculty of Arts in Maribor.

The following week, we met with a seniors' association to try to establish a partnership with them. It was a very friendly moment and we really enjoyed discovering the different activities it offers.There was also the first German lesson by my volunteer colleague Lucas, it is always very enriching and pleasant to see his colleagues' projects. I don't want to learn German but if I have some basic terms it would really be a success;) Another interesting event was the screening of the Rojava Film Festival. It was very moving to hear the festival director explain the situation. I invite you to inform yourself more and support the festival.
I did a lot of graphic work during the month for the different events proposed by Pekarna, notably the Filmopeka poster for Watchmen. The vegan meal was once again very good and we had a really enriching reading by a veterinary school.

At the end of the month, there was a greater focus on promoting the event for International AIDS Day. We collaborated with Radio Mars to have a promotional program for the December 5th event but also to talk about the subject. Jan from Radio Mars helped us develop the show. Simon from DrogArt answered an interview and I made a mixtape for the event.We also had a very enriching training with Tomaz and Natasa to build good workshops with the young people. This gave us many ideas to work more easily with young people. There was also Lucas' Travel Log on taxes in Germany. This has generated a lot of public interaction. And we ended the month with the broadcast of Watchmen;)

This month was also personally, very intense because I discovered many places and participated in many events. I have really forged a good friendship with several people here and I also enjoy discovering Maribor's day and night life. (Big thinking about the Nikola Party in Vetrinjski.)

Gilles

First ESC Blog Entry – November

I’m Filip from Pale, Bosnia and Herzegovina. After finishing high school in Sarajevo in 2012, I spent four years studying in Prague, and two years in Budapest. This summer I arrived at Maribor to complete my post-graduate internship program (ISP CEU) at Pekarna Magdalenske Mreže (henceforth PMM) and after three charming months in Maribor I got opportunity to become ESC volunteer.

Foto: Aljaž Bašin

In the beginning of November, I had opportunity to help with preparation of screening of the 4thRojava International Film Festival hosted by Iniciativa Mestni Zbor and PMM. Namely, Komîna Fîlm a Rojava is a grassroots institution that was established by local filmmakers and supporters of the revolution in 2015, with the aim of developing the cinema culture in Rojava. Despite the war, embargo and other hardships, they managed to organize the festival three years in row. Because Turkish invasion of Rojava, this year’s realization of the festival was not possible, therefore, supporters of Rojava, and Rojava IFF organized simultaneous screenings of the festival all over the world. Towns from Yugoslav sphere were particularly active in participation, beside Maribor, screenings occurred in Skopje, Belgrade, Podgorica, Novi Sad, Sarajevo, Zenica, Banja Luka, Pula, Zagreb and Ljubljana. The festival starts every year on 13thof November is memory of the massacre which occurred in Amude, a town in Rojava, where a cinema was burned down together with hundreds of children in 1960. After the screening, we had discussion about the self-organization and self-governance in Rojava, as well as complicity of NATO i.e.Slovenia in systematic destruction of life and freedom in Rojava.

Beside Rojava IFF, in the first part of November, together with my fellow volunteers Gilles and Lucas, and our coordinator Nataša, I participated in preliminary meeting with the hosts of intergenerational daily activity center “Društvo TOTI DCA” where we set grounds for the further collaboration with their organization where we are going to produce different workshops with/for them. Afterwards, I attended series of events (Z)GRADIMO organized by PMM where I learned about housing politics in Maribor, lack of regulations and involvement in general by the state and municipality officials, and interesting alternative ways how to counter these discrepancies, such as housing cooperatives.

November was particularly eventful month in Maribor, but I would like to pick out two more events which I have strong feelings about. First is theater play “Calais, Calais” (PMM, KUD Transforma and ZIZ) where protagonists attempt to illustrate hardships and despair of refugees, as well as struggles of activists who are trying to improve conditions where refugees are held in camp Calais (FRA). The theater show calls for rethinking of the borders, modern day migrations and other power relations underpinned with the capitalist, consumeristic logic. Second event is the exhibition of Igor Bošnjak “Projekt Utopija / Project Utopia” hosted by X-OP Association for Contemporary Art in ArtKIT. Artist reinterprets idea of the European continent as a place consumed by its institutional lethargy and historical-superiority issues. The artist simultaneously questions concepts of utopia and dystopia from various standpoints, with the emphasis on European geopolitics and migrations.

Foto: Bošjan Lah

LP.
Filip

November

The third month as a volunteer for the European solidarity corps and there is a lot to report. For example, Slovenian lessons are slowly but surely entering a hot phase. Which, frankly, is a bit too early for me, but there are worse things to do, for example to think you could play "all I want for Christmas is you" in mid-November. But apart from premature Christmas songs, everything is going great, because a whole bunch of exciting things happened. Which for example? Well, first there was the first German lessons from me, which has given me a lot of fun. In addition, the RUBRIKA: FILMOPEKA took place for the first time. A workshop where you learn how to write a solid film review step by step. And last but not least, Gilles and I recorded a radio broadcast, which consisted an interview and a mix tape. The broadcast served mainly the purpose to draw more attention on the "international Aids evening" on 5.12. Because content wise, we deal with the same topics, albeit on a small scale.

until next month Lucas