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

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