The theme is about the residents of the GrandsVoisns and the interaction with their the place they live in, the African flavor was exist in all the activities that we did.
“Les Grands Voisins” is a social initiative ran by a French NGO Aurore, located in an abandoned hospital area, where part of the buildings have been reconverted into residences for people (mostly migrants) in need of accommodation and some spaces are rented out to NGOs and artists. In the summer of 2017 roughly 600 people live and 1000 people work on the site”
In order to reach this point we had several parallel workshops for preparing main campaign event; and we also had two prior smaller events.
We launched parallel workshops for Journalism, Poster, Theatre and Short film. Participants were free to choose in which session they wished to participate and to what art form they wished to contribute
From the 1st to the 16th July the Artivist team participated in the exhibition “En herbe et en Béton” at the Galerie des Arts Voisins, where we exposed results of the “initiation to artivism” workshop: collages, photographies and texts prepared by the participants. The event gave lost of exposure to our work and triggered many reactions mostly from the professionals working on the site.
Our campaign had 2 phases
PHASE A:
Our first phase of the campaign was an interactive course composed of four different stations.
Briefly, we had four stations and during moving from station to other there was an activity in between! The progress between the four stations was also significant: we started on a spot mainly occupied by the NGOs on the site (mostly frequented by paid, French professionals) and ending the course in the “Maison des Médecins” which is the cultural center of the residents, located well behind the areas commonly frequented by the French staff.
Station #1:
We started our event in the courtyard of one of the main buildings for NGOs.
We welcomed the audience and the participants to eat and drink some snacks and drinks.
We stared our event by two activities of warming up and knowing the names of the others, then we played an activity illustrating group identity and group dynamics.
The Activity in between: we invited participants to walk to the next station, walking together with 2 other persons they know the least or that least resemble them, we asked them to discuss with each other about the first good memory in the site of GrandsVoisins.
Station #2:
We screened the short film that based on the text of the residents who were engaged with us, and starred by them. It’s a 10 minutes short film.
The film was introduced by the director of the film Ivan GONZALES and one of the participants who contributed to the script and also was a main character in the film.
The Activity in between: we invited people to proceed to the next station and discuss what they thought of the film on the way.
Station #3:
In the ground floor, we welcomed visitors with an exhibition showing posters, post cards and texts illustrating life in Les Grands Voisins as the residents perceive it.
 |
 |
Credit : Yes We Camp
Click to download: the PDF of the poster
Then we invite all the crowd to join us in the 1st floor and we performed a traditional Senegalese tale about “the secret of happiness”
Then we went outside, in front of the building to enjoy dancing at the rhythm African in the fresh air.
Station #4:
we wanted to celebrate the residents who really worked hardly during the last couples of months, therefor we enjoyed together of some music, and we danced once and again.
PHASE B:
We decided to dedicate a dedicated evening for the event of launching the magazine, in order to give the magazine the enough time that it deserves.
So we invited the world to come on the 27th of October to participate in the journey of discovering the thoughts of some residents of GrandVoisins!
The magazine has been co-produced by the residents of GV and team artivism.
Click on the thumbnail below to download the Magazine
We chose the subject of the depopulation of rural areas, the alternative solutions. and the consequences for young people.
And in order to rise the questions we did the following:
Firstly, we tried to understand what are the conditions to make a participatory cinema. Which is the difference with any other audiovisual project. We understand participatory cinema as done through a horizontal process, t. m. not hierarchical, in which everyone participates. Also, as we were explained by Chiara Digrandi in the INTRANSIT workshop, it is a tool of empowerment. With all this clear, the difficulty of our little project grew: find a topic of social interest, locate people, to convince them to carry out an audiovisual piece …
We discard some of the proposals, such as that of the refugees, because it required a lot of work to get into trust with people. Also, in the case of an ephemeral work, we did not want to feel that we were “using” people for the project, and then abandon them.
The proposal on Chinese immigration – motivated by our colleague, Yangyang – was also ruled out by the difficulty in the postproduction: translation, subtitling.
Then, we realized that it was not necessary to look outside to take out a video: we all had something in common. Except Pedro, all of us are from outside of Madrid. We have finished here because of our studiers and work, that is, a migration to the city. Meanwhile the villages are running empty, as we live in apartments that are too expensive and overcrowded Thus
The project emerged: The depopulated Spain.
The film does not only tell the story of depopulated Spain. It also counts our personal story.
Since it is a documentary report, not a piece of fiction, we have developed a scale, instead of a script, since we had no way of knowing how exactly we were going to structure it or what the interviewees were going to say until you had the complete material.
The short film has structured in three thematic axes:
Locations: Villages with less than twenty inhabitants in the province of Soria.
Characters: People residents of these villages.
Resources: Recording of rural landscapes and funds of the different locations.
Music: From Ushuaia to the Quiaca – Gustavo Santaolalla – Motorcycle Diaries, Diarios de Motocicleta.
Text: The empty Spain is located in the Serrania Celtibérica, in the interior of Aragón, the two Castillas, the Valencian Community and La Rioja. 94% of the municipalities of Soria are at extreme risk of extinction. With an extension of more than 60,000 square kilometers occupies twice as much as Belgium, but has less than eight inhabitants per square kilometer. In some areas such as the Universal Montes the population density is 1.63 inhabitants per square kilometer, figure comparable with Lapland or Siberia. With depopulation, there are fewer and fewer services. They close stores, pharmacies, bars … The Spanish Lapland registers the higher rate of aging in the EU. People end up going to cities like Madrid.
Questions proposed:
Many people move to the cities for work or study and end up staying to live. 80% of the Spanish population lives in 20% of the territory. In the cities they find a wider range of opportunities. In recent years community projects as an alternative to cities has been creating.
Questions proposed:
Locations: Village in recovery of Navapalos, Soria.
Characters: Repobladores.
Resources: Recording of village funds.
Music: Reading in the Hospital – Gustavo Santaolalla – Motorcycle Diaries
Text: The project aims to recover the abandoned village of Navapalos. In Spain there are more than 50 ecovillages. If the villages die, our culture will die.
Questions proposed:
The second team, Sara Leal and Oscar also worked with the collaborative video format, and the subject was the animal abuse. The text is based on the basic question: Would you change the end of the story of Bambi?.
The result of these interviews consists of a very interesting content and text. However, the images will be changed to replace the monotonous format of the interview with images that demonstrate the seriousness of the question. The team will continue working on this project.
BLOG MANERAS DE VIVIR: https://grupo1sociologiapo.wixsite.com/manerasdevivir
The second format used for the Campaign was the Urban Walk: It is a format we used in the initial stage of our project when we were working on the Ideas Bank and Ideas Marathon. In this case, our young participant decided to work in Carabanchel, the same district we included in our urban walks.
This technique consists of making the life of a place visible in order to intervene in it, establishing a participatory strategy based on the experiences of residents who, as users of the city, have a greater knowledge of their idiosyncrasy. The procedure begins with the previous design by the participants of an itinerary to follow under a series of reflections that had to be observed and investigated along the route for their subsequent discussion
Lorena Kancha (author of the blog)
I have a friend that lives in Crabanchel since she was born so I usually visit the neighbourhood, I asked my friend to talk with her parents to make the interview as they know Carabanchel very well and her father, Vicente Martin is writting a book about the neighborhood. I got in touch with them and we arrange a date for the interview so I started with the video production. I spoke with one of my classmates who wanted to go with me and I gave her the questions, so she had to read them while I was recording the video. Once we finished the interview the mother of my friend Teresa Gomez offered herself to show us the neighborhood (the market, churches, stores..) There was just one difficulty and it was the rain on that day. She was making the journey and I was recording the video with my cellphone because I don’t have a profesional camera. Then I started with the video montage. I spent 10 hours to montage the video because I had too much interesting material.
Is the first time I make a work like this , I ‘m satisfied with the result because it has been a challenge for myself. I have learned more about Carabanchel but most of all. I’ve seen all that happens in a neighborhood of Madrid that has nothing to envy from other big cities.
This workshop took place at the Nottingham Contemporary Gallery, where we made an animation that reflected our opinions on local issues. Firstly, we decided to make a logo, combining words, signs and symbols to create our desired effect. We then voted on our favourites and made a collaborative logo. We then recorded voice over comments of our views on local issues and applied them to the logo which we had animated.
This was our final event before the Budapest festival, and we decided to wander around different parts of the city such as Sneinton Market, the Windmill, and also looked at local street art. We then discussed their place in the city and their cultural importance and what they do for the community.
We then made our own non-permanent pieces of art outside of the Nottingham Contemporary in order to give colour and art to a concrete space.
In Budapest, after the initiation workshops where the participants could try out several tools and means of art, we started to rediscover our questions and track specific issues that are relevant for the group members so that there is a willingness to work on a campaign. To support the participation and the feeling of safety we also invited at the beginning of this phase an expert in the right of assembly to see what are the opportunities and the pitfalls we are facing while planning an action at the public space.
Attila Szabó from TASZ (Hungarian Civil Liberties Union) gave an overview ont he regulations of the activities done in public space with our without political aims, and answered the practical questions of the group members.
To initiate the campaign period we started a brainstorming by gathering every issue, form and date that was interesting or appealing for someone to call attention to/with. This resulted a list with diverse items as invisible theatre, picnic, international women’s day, etc. Following the group discussed every item, creating connections, linking forms of actions and topics and developing them further. As a closing step we made a voting for every action draft considering the possible dates for it and the capacity and energy the members have in that period (as a lof of them are students and were writing their thesis).
Based on this planning we planned and realised 4 campaigns and actions, between the 1th March and 23th June, tackling different topics, but the overall aim was the same: creating dialogue between people, who might not have the chance to speak with each other.
At 8th March we celebrate women’s day in Hungary, similarly to other countries. As some group members wanted to start the campaign activities as soon as possible and the situation of the women in Hungary was also an issue in our pool, we decided to do an event, and a virtual event as well, where the aim was to ask women what they would like to have for women’s day? Both men and women answered our question, some on the facebook, more on the spot.
The Hungarian political context has many layers, as our group members have very diverse opinion about the system and also about solutions. Their level about the willingness to engage in discussion where explicit arguments would emerge about parties was generally low, but the urge to do something, even something little to facilitate change was stronger. So they created this easy access and copyable action and a facebook event as well: Chalking for participation!
“Spend 10 minutes up to 8th April on one day / even every day by writing a question about your participation at the elections on a paved pathway somewhere and talking to someone who initiates talking about what you are doing.
If you have it, take a picture, post it with an important idea of your conversation, or with a phrase that was important for you to the event!
Here is the RECIPE:
Ingredients:
– chalk
– 5–10 minutes
– some thoughts about what you would like to ask, or what you would like to talk about (eg why it is important for you to participate at the elections, tactical voting, what do you want after the elections)
– public space
– a photography device
preparation:
take a sidewalk where many people may pass by. Take a sentence that is exciting about your choices.
Write the sentence on the sidewalk!
If someone is addressing you in writing, mix yourself up with a conversation about the topic, if you like it.”
The group Artivizmus Budapest was invited to take part in a community event and speak about our aims at Auróra, a community and cultural centre, who gives home to NGOs and events that are critical towards the government, due to this often assaulted by the local municipality and the government friendly media.
We appeared in the media, on both sides (opposition and government friendly)
http://hvg.hu/itthon/20180330_Felmillio_befogott_orr_kell_a_fidesz_levaltasahoz
http://www.demokrata.hu/hir/belfold/szurrealis-kormanybuktato-est-az-auroraban
As a final and also separate event some members occupied one central square in Budapest, speaking with the passengers and painting their answers if they went to vote or not and the reasons why.
I May we designed a photo exhibition, that embraced photos one took at some historical point in life and now thinks, that somehow the images is a failure, but worth to show it. The aim was primarily to celebrate mistakes and see them as an opportunity. From the point of view of inclusion of people to the action – who are not part of the group – this was the most successful campaign, quite a few people came or sent their images and some explanation that we installed together to an abandoned office building, right before the inauguration.
Welcome to this exhibition space!
These are long forgotten pictures from the bottom of boxes or computers. They didn’t quite work out.
Anyone could and can join to the exhibition space, we let go of these pictures, of these mistakes and errors we made in the past. By sharing these pictures publicly, we let go of blame and embrace our creations.
„You learn from your mistakes.”
„The person who doesn’t make mistakes is unlikely to make anything.”
I SCREWED UP, THEREFORE I AM
The theme is about the residents of the GrandsVoisns and the interaction with their the place they live in, the African flavor was exist in all the activities that we did.
“Les Grands Voisins” is a social initiative ran by a French NGO Aurore, located in an abandoned hospital area, where part of the buildings have been reconverted into residences for people (mostly migrants) in need of accommodation and some spaces are rented out to NGOs and artists. In the summer of 2017 roughly 600 people live and 1000 people work on the site”
In order to reach this point we had several parallel workshops for preparing main campaign event; and we also had two prior smaller events.
We launched parallel workshops for Journalism, Poster, Theatre and Short film. Participants were free to choose in which session they wished to participate and to what art form they wished to contribute
From the 1st to the 16th July the Artivist team participated in the exhibition “En herbe et en Béton” at the Galerie des Arts Voisins, where we exposed results of the “initiation to artivism” workshop: collages, photographies and texts prepared by the participants. The event gave lost of exposure to our work and triggered many reactions mostly from the professionals working on the site.
Our campaign had 2 phases
PHASE A:
Our first phase of the campaign was an interactive course composed of four different stations.
Briefly, we had four stations and during moving from station to other there was an activity in between! The progress between the four stations was also significant: we started on a spot mainly occupied by the NGOs on the site (mostly frequented by paid, French professionals) and ending the course in the “Maison des Médecins” which is the cultural center of the residents, located well behind the areas commonly frequented by the French staff.
Station #1:
We started our event in the courtyard of one of the main buildings for NGOs.
We welcomed the audience and the participants to eat and drink some snacks and drinks.
We stared our event by two activities of warming up and knowing the names of the others, then we played an activity illustrating group identity and group dynamics.
The Activity in between: we invited participants to walk to the next station, walking together with 2 other persons they know the least or that least resemble them, we asked them to discuss with each other about the first good memory in the site of GrandsVoisins.
Station #2:
We screened the short film that based on the text of the residents who were engaged with us, and starred by them. It’s a 10 minutes short film.
The film was introduced by the director of the film Ivan GONZALES and one of the participants who contributed to the script and also was a main character in the film.
The Activity in between: we invited people to proceed to the next station and discuss what they thought of the film on the way.
Station #3:
In the ground floor, we welcomed visitors with an exhibition showing posters, post cards and texts illustrating life in Les Grands Voisins as the residents perceive it.
|
|
Credit : Yes We Camp
Click to download: the PDF of the poster
Then we invite all the crowd to join us in the 1st floor and we performed a traditional Senegalese tale about “the secret of happiness”
Then we went outside, in front of the building to enjoy dancing at the rhythm African in the fresh air.
Station #4:
we wanted to celebrate the residents who really worked hardly during the last couples of months, therefor we enjoyed together of some music, and we danced once and again.
PHASE B:
We decided to dedicate a dedicated evening for the event of launching the magazine, in order to give the magazine the enough time that it deserves.
So we invited the world to come on the 27th of October to participate in the journey of discovering the thoughts of some residents of GrandVoisins!
The magazine has been co-produced by the residents of GV and team artivism.
Click on the thumbnail below to download the Magazine
We chose the subject of the depopulation of rural areas, the alternative solutions. and the consequences for young people.
And in order to rise the questions we did the following:
Firstly, we tried to understand what are the conditions to make a participatory cinema. Which is the difference with any other audiovisual project. We understand participatory cinema as done through a horizontal process, t. m. not hierarchical, in which everyone participates. Also, as we were explained by Chiara Digrandi in the INTRANSIT workshop, it is a tool of empowerment. With all this clear, the difficulty of our little project grew: find a topic of social interest, locate people, to convince them to carry out an audiovisual piece …
We discard some of the proposals, such as that of the refugees, because it required a lot of work to get into trust with people. Also, in the case of an ephemeral work, we did not want to feel that we were “using” people for the project, and then abandon them.
The proposal on Chinese immigration – motivated by our colleague, Yangyang – was also ruled out by the difficulty in the postproduction: translation, subtitling.
Then, we realized that it was not necessary to look outside to take out a video: we all had something in common. Except Pedro, all of us are from outside of Madrid. We have finished here because of our studiers and work, that is, a migration to the city. Meanwhile the villages are running empty, as we live in apartments that are too expensive and overcrowded Thus
The project emerged: The depopulated Spain.
The film does not only tell the story of depopulated Spain. It also counts our personal story.
Since it is a documentary report, not a piece of fiction, we have developed a scale, instead of a script, since we had no way of knowing how exactly we were going to structure it or what the interviewees were going to say until you had the complete material.
The short film has structured in three thematic axes:
Locations: Villages with less than twenty inhabitants in the province of Soria.
Characters: People residents of these villages.
Resources: Recording of rural landscapes and funds of the different locations.
Music: From Ushuaia to the Quiaca – Gustavo Santaolalla – Motorcycle Diaries, Diarios de Motocicleta.
Text: The empty Spain is located in the Serrania Celtibérica, in the interior of Aragón, the two Castillas, the Valencian Community and La Rioja. 94% of the municipalities of Soria are at extreme risk of extinction. With an extension of more than 60,000 square kilometers occupies twice as much as Belgium, but has less than eight inhabitants per square kilometer. In some areas such as the Universal Montes the population density is 1.63 inhabitants per square kilometer, figure comparable with Lapland or Siberia. With depopulation, there are fewer and fewer services. They close stores, pharmacies, bars … The Spanish Lapland registers the higher rate of aging in the EU. People end up going to cities like Madrid.
Questions proposed:
Many people move to the cities for work or study and end up staying to live. 80% of the Spanish population lives in 20% of the territory. In the cities they find a wider range of opportunities. In recent years community projects as an alternative to cities has been creating.
Questions proposed:
Locations: Village in recovery of Navapalos, Soria.
Characters: Repobladores.
Resources: Recording of village funds.
Music: Reading in the Hospital – Gustavo Santaolalla – Motorcycle Diaries
Text: The project aims to recover the abandoned village of Navapalos. In Spain there are more than 50 ecovillages. If the villages die, our culture will die.
Questions proposed:
The second team, Sara Leal and Oscar also worked with the collaborative video format, and the subject was the animal abuse. The text is based on the basic question: Would you change the end of the story of Bambi?.
The result of these interviews consists of a very interesting content and text. However, the images will be changed to replace the monotonous format of the interview with images that demonstrate the seriousness of the question. The team will continue working on this project.
BLOG MANERAS DE VIVIR: https://grupo1sociologiapo.wixsite.com/manerasdevivir
The second format used for the Campaign was the Urban Walk: It is a format we used in the initial stage of our project when we were working on the Ideas Bank and Ideas Marathon. In this case, our young participant decided to work in Carabanchel, the same district we included in our urban walks.
This technique consists of making the life of a place visible in order to intervene in it, establishing a participatory strategy based on the experiences of residents who, as users of the city, have a greater knowledge of their idiosyncrasy. The procedure begins with the previous design by the participants of an itinerary to follow under a series of reflections that had to be observed and investigated along the route for their subsequent discussion
Lorena Kancha (author of the blog)
I have a friend that lives in Crabanchel since she was born so I usually visit the neighbourhood, I asked my friend to talk with her parents to make the interview as they know Carabanchel very well and her father, Vicente Martin is writting a book about the neighborhood. I got in touch with them and we arrange a date for the interview so I started with the video production. I spoke with one of my classmates who wanted to go with me and I gave her the questions, so she had to read them while I was recording the video. Once we finished the interview the mother of my friend Teresa Gomez offered herself to show us the neighborhood (the market, churches, stores..) There was just one difficulty and it was the rain on that day. She was making the journey and I was recording the video with my cellphone because I don’t have a profesional camera. Then I started with the video montage. I spent 10 hours to montage the video because I had too much interesting material.
Is the first time I make a work like this , I ‘m satisfied with the result because it has been a challenge for myself. I have learned more about Carabanchel but most of all. I’ve seen all that happens in a neighborhood of Madrid that has nothing to envy from other big cities.
This workshop took place at the Nottingham Contemporary Gallery, where we made an animation that reflected our opinions on local issues. Firstly, we decided to make a logo, combining words, signs and symbols to create our desired effect. We then voted on our favourites and made a collaborative logo. We then recorded voice over comments of our views on local issues and applied them to the logo which we had animated.
This was our final event before the Budapest festival, and we decided to wander around different parts of the city such as Sneinton Market, the Windmill, and also looked at local street art. We then discussed their place in the city and their cultural importance and what they do for the community.
We then made our own non-permanent pieces of art outside of the Nottingham Contemporary in order to give colour and art to a concrete space.
In Budapest, after the initiation workshops where the participants could try out several tools and means of art, we started to rediscover our questions and track specific issues that are relevant for the group members so that there is a willingness to work on a campaign. To support the participation and the feeling of safety we also invited at the beginning of this phase an expert in the right of assembly to see what are the opportunities and the pitfalls we are facing while planning an action at the public space.
Attila Szabó from TASZ (Hungarian Civil Liberties Union) gave an overview ont he regulations of the activities done in public space with our without political aims, and answered the practical questions of the group members.
To initiate the campaign period we started a brainstorming by gathering every issue, form and date that was interesting or appealing for someone to call attention to/with. This resulted a list with diverse items as invisible theatre, picnic, international women’s day, etc. Following the group discussed every item, creating connections, linking forms of actions and topics and developing them further. As a closing step we made a voting for every action draft considering the possible dates for it and the capacity and energy the members have in that period (as a lof of them are students and were writing their thesis).
Based on this planning we planned and realised 4 campaigns and actions, between the 1th March and 23th June, tackling different topics, but the overall aim was the same: creating dialogue between people, who might not have the chance to speak with each other.
At 8th March we celebrate women’s day in Hungary, similarly to other countries. As some group members wanted to start the campaign activities as soon as possible and the situation of the women in Hungary was also an issue in our pool, we decided to do an event, and a virtual event as well, where the aim was to ask women what they would like to have for women’s day? Both men and women answered our question, some on the facebook, more on the spot.
The Hungarian political context has many layers, as our group members have very diverse opinion about the system and also about solutions. Their level about the willingness to engage in discussion where explicit arguments would emerge about parties was generally low, but the urge to do something, even something little to facilitate change was stronger. So they created this easy access and copyable action and a facebook event as well: Chalking for participation!
“Spend 10 minutes up to 8th April on one day / even every day by writing a question about your participation at the elections on a paved pathway somewhere and talking to someone who initiates talking about what you are doing.
If you have it, take a picture, post it with an important idea of your conversation, or with a phrase that was important for you to the event!
Here is the RECIPE:
Ingredients:
– chalk
– 5–10 minutes
– some thoughts about what you would like to ask, or what you would like to talk about (eg why it is important for you to participate at the elections, tactical voting, what do you want after the elections)
– public space
– a photography device
preparation:
take a sidewalk where many people may pass by. Take a sentence that is exciting about your choices.
Write the sentence on the sidewalk!
If someone is addressing you in writing, mix yourself up with a conversation about the topic, if you like it.”
The group Artivizmus Budapest was invited to take part in a community event and speak about our aims at Auróra, a community and cultural centre, who gives home to NGOs and events that are critical towards the government, due to this often assaulted by the local municipality and the government friendly media.
We appeared in the media, on both sides (opposition and government friendly)
http://hvg.hu/itthon/20180330_Felmillio_befogott_orr_kell_a_fidesz_levaltasahoz
http://www.demokrata.hu/hir/belfold/szurrealis-kormanybuktato-est-az-auroraban
As a final and also separate event some members occupied one central square in Budapest, speaking with the passengers and painting their answers if they went to vote or not and the reasons why.
I May we designed a photo exhibition, that embraced photos one took at some historical point in life and now thinks, that somehow the images is a failure, but worth to show it. The aim was primarily to celebrate mistakes and see them as an opportunity. From the point of view of inclusion of people to the action – who are not part of the group – this was the most successful campaign, quite a few people came or sent their images and some explanation that we installed together to an abandoned office building, right before the inauguration.
Welcome to this exhibition space!
These are long forgotten pictures from the bottom of boxes or computers. They didn’t quite work out.
Anyone could and can join to the exhibition space, we let go of these pictures, of these mistakes and errors we made in the past. By sharing these pictures publicly, we let go of blame and embrace our creations.
„You learn from your mistakes.”
„The person who doesn’t make mistakes is unlikely to make anything.”
I SCREWED UP, THEREFORE I AM
“The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.”