Arts Lab 5.0: Sena Yavuz, Turkey - Month 2

To be honest, I didn't even realize how the second month went by. It feels like it's gone by in the blink of an eye, and we haven't done too much. But when I checked my gallery to see what happened, I saw that we did a lot actually, including an exhibition. 

Well, the month started with a big workshop organization. But the interesting part, it was not in the school, it was in our house! In the beginning, it was not a really good idea for me to host more than 50 kids in the house, but finally, it went well because the kids were really kind and excited. This time we tried something different with Raphaelle. We decided to do something that kids really love: face painting! We gave them a lot of paints and set them free. They painted us, we painted them, they painted each other. At the end of the day, everyone was decorated with folklore patterns somehow. But the most important part, everyone had a lot of fun! And at the end of the day, something happened. While sharing our feelings about the day, one of the boys said that he wanted to come to this place again in the future together with his kids. It really touched my soul and I felt that I was in the right way. 

After hosting the kids, we switched to a fast-paced schedule, because the folklore exhibition was pretty soon. We went to the hill in Târgu Frumos to have a photo session for the catalog, with Arty too, and discovered a new part of the town, it was really fun. But the bad thing was that we had very limited time to complete our personal projects. I was planning to do a lot of things, but due to the lack of time, I could not do all of them. 

However, I managed to design a new alternative logo for the town of Târgu Frumos. I kept the main figures which are eagle, wolf, and castle in the original logo together with the colors of black and red, and I interpreted them with a modern approach. 

In addition to that, I designed a crown inspired by Romanian mythology. I abstracted the characteristics of figures such as Capra, Greuceanu, and Zmeul and integrated them into my crown. Like gathering a lot of figures, I used several techniques like papier mache, 3D figure making out of a hot glue gun, plastic forming with heat, etc. In the end, it became something good, especially for a thing that I’ve done almost in a day. 

On the exhibition day, I created another crown, by using zip ties, for the experimental part and I gave a workshop to the guests about how to make figures out of a hot glue gun. In the end, I combined all the figures made by guests on the simple crown and we had a collaborative artwork, which I really like. I think guests enjoyed both my works, the workshop, and the whole exhibition because I heard a lot of compliments and it boosted my motivation. To be honest, I do not remember how many postcards I signed, which was really flattering. 

The exhibition was not that good according to the standards in my mind, but I’m sure that the next one will be better because we all learned a lot. After this, I had maybe my worst day in Romania: a full day in the immigration office. We spent the whole day there, and the weather was really cold. The day after I got sick, which was not surprising. It was exactly like torture but at least it is done. 

By the way, this month we traveled to another city called Suceava as a team for the first time. Before going, I thought that it would be really hard to decide and move with 10 people, but it went perfectly. We visited a lot of places, and we enjoyed it a lot, especially the Cetatea de Scaun. The route going there was totally green it was like a road to heaven. I think we all spent a really nice day together and decided to do this more often. 

The other important thing that happened this month was the art residency that we gave in the Garabet Ibrăileanu school. I combined the concepts of accessory design & photography together and I had a group full of girls. I had almost 12 of them, and all of them were amazing. They were really talented, curious, dedicated, kind, and most important, they were full of love. They surprised us almost every day with different things! Sometimes with confetti, sometimes with hand-crafted memory cards and letters, and sometimes with a board full of love. Seeing all of them arranging everything in the class and waiting for us to come in a really exciting way, were making my day perfect. To be honest, they changed all of my perceptions of kids. I did not even feel that I was tired. They created moments for me that I will always remember with a smile on my face. They gave me the warmest hugs that I will always carry with me. 

I learned that I can touch the lives of people and leave a good mark on them by just being myself and sharing the moment. This was the best thing that I discovered about life in Romania so far.

Sena Hanım Yavuz is from Turkey, and she is participating in a six-month volunteering program within Arts Lab 5.0, a project co-funded by the European Union through the European Solidarity Corps.