CHANGING ROOM Staff Exchange

Water. Sinking Cities. is a project developed and managed by EVS volunteers (Monica Aggio and Linda Konone) at Trans Europe Halles Member Centres P60 (Amstelveen, The Netherlands) and NOASS (Riga, Latvia). Two international groups work on the project’s theme: Water as an element of the nature and water embedded in sinking cities reflection. Exchanges take place between the two countries, leading up to audiovisual art works for the final presentations in Riga and Amstelveen.

Whole exchange is divided into 3 steps:

STEP 01
From 21st to 27th June – exchange in Riga.
26th June - live audio visual performance in NOASS art space.

STEP 02
July - August – communication on the internet platform
The artists upload audio-visual materials and share ideas for the next Exchange

STEP 03
From 13th to 19th September – exchange in Amstelveen.
18th September – live audio visual performance in P60 venue.

Exchange in Riga has successfully finished.
The main idea of step 01 was to meet for the first time, get to know each other and to divide into successful and productive crews. Because of a good start and right activities, despite the short time, both artist crews managed to create very nice performances. And not least, the exchange itself went very well and pretty active.

The artists involved are: Ashkan Honarvar (NL), Emile Van De Coevering (NL), Gatis Stauga (LV), Kaspars Groševs (LV), Krišs Zilgalvis (LV), Roberts Galviņš (LV), Robin Koek (NL), Sander Houtman (NL), and Marieke Van De Ven (NL).

Some comments from participants about week in Riga:

“I think the idea of WSC itself is promising and even intriguing, at least for me. All artists are quite different from each other in means of expression and activities, and I like the challenge it offers. However sometimes it was hard to understand what is it exactly that we are working on - an art work, performance, entertainment piece? Perhaps it’s not that important, but these questions naturally come along with concerns of finding purpose in using image, sound, space, event. Conceptual guidelines and some “curatorial guidance” can really help in shaping up the result. Because if artists start from the scratch and there’s no real direction or guidelines than most probably the artist will do what he/she does best. In case of a group project it can lead to more or less interesting combinations or more likely dissonant fragments.
The week passed by really fast so it was just enough time to get to know everyone better and find some common interest point to work with. I thought the technical limitations didn’t disturb that much - just helped narrowing down all the possible choices, however unclarity of whether or not LED screen can be used left some choices to the last moment. The work process was quite short but kind an intense and it was interesting for me to try stepping into club culture aesthetics. I feel it has a potential of rethinking its elements and structures. So I hope this working process has just started and we will be able to work more on clearing the end result.”

Kaspars Groševs (LV)

“I think the exchange of Holland with Latvia was a very good one. Not only did we learn a lot and got inspired from each other, we also had a great week just spending time with the group. Good progress on the projects at day and interesting discussions at night. I was very satisfied with the (semi)end-results after just one week of cooperation. And participating in the Latvian midsummer festival was really a fantastic experience! I’m looking forward to the next part of the Exchange in Holland”

Sander Houtman (NL)

“The first step of the project was great. It was a good chance to meet all participants and exchange ideas. It was challenging for me (in a good way) to work with different kind of artists and meet different cultures (and subcultures).
I really hope that we gonna make something good in Amsterdam.”

Krišs Zilgalvis (LV)

City collage by Ashkan Honarvar (NL)

Read more about “Water. Sinking Cities.” at the project’s website.

Just to have an idea how great was the first exchange in Riga!

Other info, videos, photos and comments in the website: www.watersinkingcities.org

we are sinking

in p60

sink with us

http://watersinkingcities.org/

In the beginning of April I went to Žilina, Slovakia for the Changing room exchange. My expectations were only to see how it works and meet the people there, and with such expectations I could hardly get disappointed. The weather was getting warmer, the people were very kind, and soon I lost the feeling of being a tourist.

Park behind Stanica

In the centre I helped in conceptualizing and preparing art workshops for children, although I was more an observer while they were taking place, due to the language barrier. I recorded and edited activist actions of cyclists, and helped organize them (http://vimeo.com/11084149). I was also lucky to be able to go on a trip, where we looked for abandoned cinemas for the KinoBus festival, which will take place in September. With their EVS volunteer Jitka Sedláková, whom I met on the TEH meeting in Krakow, I prepared an exhibition of videos, dealing with the subject of fairytales, stories, and myths, which we opened shortly before my residency in Stanica finished. I also participated as an author, as the exhibition included my video work, which I created during my stay in Slovakia. My work also included other smaller jobs, like distributing flyers and posters, walking the dog, and intensive socializing with Stanica’s team. J

Kino Bus trip

I think the exchange was useful for me, since I got to see and experience the work process and organization in the chosen cultural centre. I met a lot of interesting people, and wish to continue cooperating with them in the future. A sort of production/programme exchange between Stanica and Pekarna is already taking place, actually. In April, Stanica’s band The Jerremy Franklin Wedding Band performed in Pekarna, and a light-design workshop took place in the same week (led by Tomaš Marny). Two dance performances were also planned as part of this exchange, but unfortunately had to be cancelled due to the injury of one of the dancers. The cancelled performances will therefore be presented in Pekarna in the autumn. In addition, three of the bands that work, practice, and perhaps even live in Pekarna – Nina Bulatovix, Coma Stereo and Vortex Magnolia – will visit Stanica in the end of August and perform there.

In September, we are preparing and exhibition of Czech illustrators in Maribor. The curator of the exhibition is Stanica’s EVS volunteer Paula Byrtusova. We also plan to bring (and expand) the video exhibition Fairy tale to Maribor.

I also learned how to sew books. That’s a useful thing.

Sewing books workshop

The exchange was a really pleasant experience for me and for sure I would recommend it to others. I seriously have nothing to complain about. I am up for another exchange right away… but it’s also possible that I had such a great time because Stanica is so great. <3

Stanica

Alte Feuerwache, Cologne

I have  arrived well in Koln. Kerstin, member of the board of Alte Feuerwache, welcomed me and lent me her bedroom.

The first thing we did when I arrived Sunday at the beginning of the evening, was go to the center. I discovered the outside by night and I enjoyed having a Kölsch at the restaurant.

Alte Feuerwache, Cologne

On Monday I had a meeting with Peter (the one responsible for the teen activities) who explained the organization and the activities of Alte Feuerwache to me. I visited all the buildings and met some artisans (wood, sculpture, metal, glass, gold…) in their workshops. The thing I noticed is that Alte Feuerwache has a strong social and political engagement.
On Tuesday I spent my morning with Yohanna and her teenage girls. They have a club especially for them at the last floor with a terrasse and a computer room. I used stencils to make postcards, teeshirts, bags with them,..

Alte Feuerwache, Cologne

On Wednesday it was shadow theater with the youngest. We draw halloween caracters and animated them behind white sheets. Parents came to watch the show at the end.
On Thursday I had a coffee with the teenage boys in their coffee room. They showed me videos and photos of the activities they had already done. Birgit, in charge of children activities, explained to me how they work in Alte Feuerwache. Their aim is really to support families and help children to blossom.
On Friday I took a train to Dusseldorf to meet Jochen, manager of a place called Zakk. We had a long discussion and we visited the whole place. He invited me to join a discussion group for an international seminaire in June 2010.

Bike rides, museums, discoveries of all kind (places, food, people,..) were also part of the experience.

It is the end of the week and it is time to rest and assimilate all the things I have done. This project was all about meeting, talking, and thinking alone and together. Things we don’t take time to do in our daily activities.

I’m Ieva, freshly baked student, who chose to continue her learning and finding path for a further future with a help of EVS.

So, eversince January 2010 I’ve been volunteer in an independent culture centre „Pekarna Magdalenske Mreže” in Maribor, Slovenia.

As all of volunteers I had my expectations and my frights, if reality will be same, but all in all I can say that I’m fully satisficed with my choice.

As for what I do here – I help organising and taking care of the concerts in the concert hall of my organisation,

that includes :

• learning to make friends with a sound mixer
• learning to play with the lights so the visitors don’t get blinded
• cooking for the bands  (it’s usually the same food, but at least I improve myself in cleaning dishes afterwards…)

I also make movie nights in the same hall - during the summer these nights will take place also outdoors  (doing this helped me improve my poor and chaotic organising skills, also working with photoshop, because posters have to be done, and have to be done as nicely as you can, so people actually show up, buuut till now they still look weird.  But probably that’s just my style, or at least that’s how I justify my skills ).

Sometimes I slip myself also into other small works done around „Pekarna” theritory –

• cleaning up sessions in our yard ( yes, now i can confess, I used to be one of the teenagers who litter around with no thinking, but now I can quite honestly say – DON’T DO THIS, THAT PISSES OFF QUITE NICE PEOPLE, WHO HAVE TO DO DIRTY WORK AFTER ALL OF YOU!)

sometimes helping with some events of other kind, for example

• „Maribajk” - project, when all the unneeded bikes around Maribor are gathered, repaired and later given for rent ( I did it only few times, but mostly because I’m just too much in love with vintage bikes gathered, that I’m scared I would just take one one day…or just cry out loud when it’s taken.

• Vegan Dinners ( monthly event, when every person interested can listen to some lecture about animal rights and taste some vegan food, also share their opinions with other animal rights activists and so on ) , and to be honest, I can say it’s one of the most loved event, because it includes free food, and we, poor EVS’s NEVER say no to free food (ok, kiddin)

• Just helping two other EVS with shooting „F*cking cooking show” ( I had done it only once, but OH, how proud I am about my directing work ). p.s. here’s the link to it. We shot it in an abandoned building, during my first days here. I still believe it was just our luck we came out of it fully alive and ok - http://vimeo.com/10537041
  

Also some nice work was done during „Volunteer Festival Maribor”.

I also have a show on local student’s radio „Marš”. It’s very nice, I can speak about whatever bothers me, people even listen. Or at least that’s how I calm myself down. We once made an experiment - put an interactive karaoke show during my time on radio - people could call and sing along some famous songs, or just beg for me to stop, but neither happened.

Huh.

While being here, I also fullfilled a little dream of mine – working at the bar. So now every time there’s „Solar Pulse” ( promoters, that do quite interesting concerts here ) I try to serve people with drinks as nicely as I can. It’s interesting and nice.Also great place to meet new people not spending your own money, not going out and not putting any other big pressure on it. So - double success it is!

I like my organisation, they’re very open – minded and supportive to whatever crazy ideas pop in my mind, even if they’re not quite connected with job I do there – I got colours to paint the disturbing white walls of my living space, also gained a cat, to keep apartment more alive. Of course, nobody also had yet killed me for disturbingly playing/ learning to play ukulele while I’m here. My next agenda would be to ask also for some carpets, but we’ll see what the boss says. (=

All in all I can just forward the saying that my friend once thold me, when I got tired and homesick : „Take it easy. You’re developing yourself with a speed of 1 year here is equal to 3 years back in your hometown”. And I can only agree to it.

Marian Söderholm at ufaFabrik, Berlin

My time at ufaFabrik and indeed in Berlin has sadly come to an end. Yesterday my colleagues and I celebrated our time together by having dinner at the children’s farm; a lovely end to a lovely stay. As many people would surely agree, ufaFabrik is a fantastic place full of creativity and I am very happy to have had the chance to work here for the past four months.

I have been saying goodbye to Berlin by cycling, celebrating and chilling during the last few days. And I have checked off the last couple of things on my “you’d be crazy to miss this in Berlin”-list: climbing up onto the green roofs of ufaFabrik (I’ve wanted to do that for ages…) and going to the open-air cinema in Kreuzberg. Plus I’ve experienced the madness of the 1st of May in Berlin. Those of you who have been here know what I mean. All in all, the circle has been closed and it’s time for me to pack my ever-so-slightly-too-big bags and go back to Sweden, where reports, seminars and graduation celebrations await.

I will most definitely be back to visit Berlin though and who knows, we may see each other again sooner than we know…

until then, see you all in Budapest!

xox

Marian

Hi there!

In this raining night, finally I’ve decided that is the time to present myself to this blog! But I’m an Italian lazy, so I’m going to start with the introduction that I sent to Florence some months ago..
I’m Monica from P60, this great podium for music, media and culture in Amstelveen (NL). I left Italy (this explains why I don’t like to write in English :-)) in September to live my first experience abroad at the age of 25 (better late than never!). Now I’m here in Netherlands with still my mind full of cliche’ about Dutch culture (cheese, bicycles, tulips..) but also with some enrichments and I’m trying to find a new style of life.  I live close to a forest and a lake (amazing view!) in a big house with other 2 evs volunteers (a Portuguese guy and a latvian girl). So we have the advantage to keep in touch with the nature and in the same time, just in a few minutes we’re close to Amsterdam!
In P60 we have our “international office” (actually it’s a multimedia room!) and we have a daily work and one by night.  Just right now, we’ re organizing “Water. Sinking Cities”, young artists’ exchange, that we’re proud to present for the first time during the next TEHmeeting in Budapest! So after this trip, there will be the next chapter with a lot of pictures!

I think it’s enough for the first time..now you know too much about me!
see you soon!

Monica

ciao

i am linda konone.

from  Latvia NOASS.

now in the Netherlands P60.

already for 7 months evs.

work with video

did Moving Buildings09 project and now work on  Water. Sinking cities exchange.

there is a wind of change

Martina Prokopová at Culture Center Rex, Belgrade

During the second half of November 2009, right after the realization of Slobodna Zona Festival, my volunteering work consisted of helping Nebojša Milikić with his projects. Besides some small assistances on KEF 10 (Kratka Elektronicka Forma/Short Electronic Form) I was working mainly in Kaluđerica (one of the biggest illegal settlements in Central Europe) with Nebojsa Kitanović on a project about sewerage. This project is the most recent phase of the FLUX project which lasts already from 2001 onwards. The FLUX is organized and produced by Cultural Center Rex in Belgrade and as Nebojša Milikić says: ”(The Flux) was initially focused on the cultural production in the Belgrade suburbs through displaying the contemporary art-works, organization of discussions and workshops, production of art-works related to the problems of local communities and fostering broader debate on the aspects of contemporary art itself.”

My participation on this project was work in the terrain which I welcomed after two months in CyberRex. Together with Nebojša Kitanović I was leafleting flyers from house to house, from street to street, avoiding dogs and trying to find people willing to talk, asking small shops and houses of different political parties for help. I took documentation photos of contaminated sewers as documentation of different parts of Kaluđerica. Besides I had an occasion to cook with Nebojša for the first time Serbian beans meal Prebranac. It was exciting combination: cold autumn, foolish Nebojša, barking dogs and streets not existing on the map, small coffee house with porno and holy pictures on the walls, quiet mornings and vibrant breaks under pillars of electric network near highway. It is wild and civilized place at the same time. You can see there women working on field along with “castles” (really big and modern houses). I couldn’t talk with people, but not because of my basic knowledge of Serbian. People there are absorbed in their lives, in their worries and in their daily hard work. Maybe these were just my impressions, but I could feel some gap in time or different flow of time in comparison with my work and life in the centre of Belgrade.

Previous week, 7^th April 2010 I visited Kaluđerica after longer time again. I wanted to participate on one of the top phases of the Kaluđerica sewerage project. This meeting was organized for public and all local habitants were invited to participate. The map of sewage canals has been partially completed and at the meeting mentioned above was sticked on a wall in local community building. All inhabitants of Kaluđerica were invited to talk about sewerage, to provide organisers with new ideas and information, to complete the missing parts of the map, to talk about possible solutions of the sewerage problem. The map of sewage canals will be waiting for filling up for the whole next year on this wall and the meetings with local people will be further organized. The main organizer Nebojša Milikić along with Nebojša Kitanović and Tanja Vasiljević were waiting the whole afternoon for people willing to come and talk. Why am I mentioning this (in some way) banal information? Because, as I noticed, to open local people for community projects, even for communication, is one of the hardest aims to achieve and as well if it works the most worthy reward. About the main goal of the project Nebojša Milikić says: “The most recent phase of the FLUX project is aimed to interweave an artistic and activist approach to the problem of local community. To merge the politics and the policy of the action so that everybody can extract from the project process and outcomes what finds more important or more relevant to agree or confront with. We are about to produce the map of the sewage system in Kaludjerica and thus surface a number of issues related to developmental, environmental and societal issues that characterize not only Kaluđerica, but in fact most of the other Belgrade suburbs.”

While participating and working on this project I could follow the approach of Nebojša Milikić and his assistants to common people and the space where he lives, also the slow process of working with people in suburbs what can be sometime demotivating. This work is not running in the center where are the results uncovered with fame, but almost at the borders which are too faraway.

(Photos of the meeting 7.4.2010 taken by Michal.)