Second ESC Blog Entry – December

December in Maribor is month full of Coca-Cola/Christmassy events, where everyone is partying, shopping and gorging themselves. I can say I was not partaking too much, except in the eating part. Beside the festivities, December is the month where most of the projects are supposed to be finalized, therefore plenty of NGO’s and other project-based organizations funded by EU were very busy.

p.c.maribor.info

We did a lot in Pekarna Magdalenske Mreže as well: we commemorated World Aids Day, organized various screenings and workshops, like Filmopeka: “Being 17” and bookbinder’s workshop: “Make your own planner for 2020”; as part of “Pekarna Dobiš Daš” we payed few visits to Dom Antona Skale and made new friends there, we also organized tours, lectures and hosted two artists in our residency program GuestRoomMaribor, and pulled thru two exhibitions in K18 Gallery. First exhibition was visual representation of “Sedmi Glas” - an informal educational program intended to members of different ethnic minorities and other newcomers in Maribor. The idea behind the project was to develop participants’ critical voice through reflection on art and culture. The exhibition was conglomerate of different works created through numerous series of lectures, theoretical and practical workshops, reading circles and similar.

p.c. Pekarna Magdalenske mreže

The exhibition was followed by the final conference of the project “Sedmi glas”. The conference was the roundtable discussion about employment conditions in the cultural field for non-Slovenians, the difficulty in finding employment and the systematic discrimination against migrants, especially women.

p.c. Gregor Salobir 

The second exhibition we organized was a final product of Ana Bassin’ residency (GuestRoomMaribor) titled “Ciklo”. The exhibition criticizes nowadays consumerism viz. capitalism as cause for the environmental disaster we live in.

Lep pozdrav!
Filip

World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day, designated on 1 December every year since 1988, is an international day dedicated to raising awarenes sof the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease. Government and health officials, non-governmental organizations, and individuals around the world observe the day, often with education on AIDS preventionand control. World AIDS Day is one of the eight official global public healthcampaigns marked by the World Health Organization (WHO). And despite all these efforts, the topic is still not fully understood. Questions like: are AIDS and HIV the same thing? Can u die from HIV? And does everybody who has HIV also gets AIDS? are unanswerable for a lot of people.

That's why we decide to answer this and other questions about this fatal disease also on another day the 5th of December. At the event called "International AIDS Evening". In terms of content, it was mainly about two things: on the one hand a lecture and on the other hand the screening of a film. The lecture was given by the DrogArt expert Simon Kovačič.

Over the course of the lecture, in addition to the questions already mentioned above, he also explained the differences between AIDS and HIV, the course of the disease, the treatment, the prevention and, of course, the progress made in the fight against AIDS over the last three decades. In keeping with the progress made in the fight against the disease, he has also been informing new medicines with the potential to drastically reduce the number of new infections. Furthermore, much in of material and safersex producte were provided by DrogArt for free. Next to the lecture, the film "120 BPM" (Originaltitel 120 battements par minute) was the focal point of the event.

The movie takes place In the early 1990s, where a group of HIV/AIDS activists associated with the Paris chapter of ACT UP struggle to effect action to fight the AIDS epidemic. When the pharmaceutical company Melton Pharm announces its plans to reveal its HIV trial results at a prominent pharmaceutical conference the following year, ACT UP invades its offices with fake blood and demands it release its trial results immediately. While ACT UP makes some headway with its public protests, its members fiercely debate the group's strategy, with conflicting goals of showmanship and persuasion, with conflicting aesthetics of positivity and misery.

The film gradually shifts from the political storyline of ACT UP's actions to the personal stories of ACT UP members. Foreshadowing later events in the movie, Jeremie, an AIDS positive youth in the group sees his health deteriorate rapidly. A gay, HIV-negative newcomer, Nathan, begins to fall in love with the passionate HIV-positive veteran Sean. Nathan and Sean start a sexual relationship, but Sean is already exhibiting signs of the disease's progression. Nathan cares for Sean as they both discuss their sexual histories. When Sean is released to Nathan's apartment for hospice, Nathan euthanizes him.

After the screening we had a discussion about the movie and lecture held by Simon Kovačič.

Povezava do intervjuja s Simonom Kovačičem iz DrogArta. / Link to the interview with Simon Kovačič from DrogArt.

Lucas nad Gilles

December by Lucas

December the last month of the year, everything is in anticipation of the holidays and in many places the pace of work decreases sharply in the pre-christmas time, but not here. :) Because even in December the flow of great events did not decrease. For example, there was the international AIDS evening, which was a complete success. there was first a lecture on the differences between HIV and AIDS and the most important prevention strategies. Of course there was also talk about the treatment of the diseases and how not only medical options but also the public image have changed over the past 30 years. Finally there was a French film (120 bpm) that linked the topic of AIDS and HIV in the nineties on a personal and historical level. But besides the events like Filmopeka and the international AIDS evening there was also a lot of exciting things to experience. Among other things, the Slovenian lessons. there were many new words and grammatical basics to learn. Which, admittedly, is not always easy for me. And there was also a lot to learn in the Rubriko Filmoteka section, because even if you have a well-founded opinion about a film, it is not always easy to put it into words. 

But I have to admit that I personally liked the best of all this month the time we spent with the PDD children. There were no limits to creativity when it came to tinkering and painting. and at sports games everyone could let off steam and move around. it was a blast and the kids ware just the most adorable. In conclusion I can only say it was an exciting month with many different facades.

Lucas

Blog of December

Dear readers,

we started the month of December with a workshop for children with disabilities. We put into practise the different types of activities we learned during last month's training. It was also a pleasure to work with the two Slovenian volunteers and to work with the complicity of Filip and Lucas. The workshops were diverse, we tried to make an adapted program so that the children don't get bored. There was a presentation time, a time of physical activity and a time of discussion where the children could talk about their desire for the next time.

The 3th of December was a really great moment for me, because it’s was my 30th birthday and like each changing decade, it’s always little bit complex. But my coworkers were really awesome and made the surprise to come at midnight in my place for make a little party. It's was really really kind and this event really boost me because I was a little bit confused since my computer broke. During the day, we have a great training with an LGBTQI+ organisation from Ljubljana about Hate Speech. I learned a lot about Hate Speech and it was a great moment to discover my team in another aspect of work. The same evening I went out for a drinks to enjoy my old age. :)

December 5th was the concretization of the event we created for the International AIDS Day. The evening started with the lecture held by Simon Kovačič, from association Drogart. This association proposes different types of action around the sensitization related to drugs and various sexual practices. Simon is more specialized in prevention around sexually transmitted diseases, especially for gays. We talked about different types of topics related to World aids day. It was a very enriching moment as the presentation was punctuated by questions and comments and I think that many people learned, including myself, new things about AIDS and new risky practices. The second part of the evening was the screening of the film 120 beats by minutes, it was a pleasure to see this film again, even if each time it is a bit like an emotional punch. After the screening, there was a time of exchange and I found it very moving that one of the participants spoke openly about his HIV status and the evolution of the disease since the 80s. After this beautiful evening, my French friends surprised me by coming to visit me in Ljubljana for my birthday and I enjoyed the pretty Slovenian capital all weekend. It was a very special moment and I was really happy to introduce the friends I made here to my French friends.

The week of December 9 was a very rewarding week for me. I worked in a team with several participants of the Sedmi Glas program that I had already mentioned the previous months around the retrospective exhibition of the project. We worked all week on the exhibition, including a rather time-consuming part which was to paint a poem on a wall. This project was really important for me because it made me realised that I really flourish in this kind of collaborative project. It was also a pleasure to show some photographs for this exhibition. During this week, we also worked with the Slovenian volunteers on the next workshop with children with disabilities. We imagined a workshop around the decoration of a cardboard Christmas tree. We took two hours to make a Christmas tree out of cardboard and it was an excellent moment of complicity with the volunteers. Friday was the opening of the exhibition Sedmi Glas. It was a great time to see the work accomplished and to finally relax with the participants. We celebrated in a bar with friends and we also had snow as a gift. :) It was an opportunity for me to make a snowperson, which hasn't happened to me in years (thanks climate change.)

The last week before the holidays was also busy. We did our Christmas tree decoration workshop with children with disabilities and it was a very warm moment. On Tuesday the 17th there is a conference about Sedmi Glas with different kind of discussions and lectures. I really enjoy to discover No Border Craft, a women collectif of refugee create some object with wool in Ljubljana. In the evening, we watched the film "Quand on as 17 ans" for FILMOPEKA, it was a pleasure to see many people who came for 120 beats per minute came back for the event. On Wednesday, I took part in the workshop for the creation of his agenda 2020 taking place in the gallery K18. It was a pleasant moment and I'm really happy with the result. I hope one day to be able to do this kind of experience again. It made me want to take sewing lessons again. Thursday night we had a great and rewarding time during the monthly Vegan dinner, my friend Max gave a presentation about anti-speciesism connected with Mary Shelley's work: Frankenstein. As usual, the meal was excellent. Friday was the end of the year party and it was an excellent finale for 2019. I don't know what else to say. I spent a few days in France and now I'm just back in Slovenia and I really missed the Slovenian sky, I really appreciate this bubble in Maribor.

Gilles