Arts Lab 6.0: Sona Tamrazyan - Month 5

Week 1

We opened the week with the residency at Școala Gimnazială "Ion Creangă". Katrina and I had a big group of very sweet kids. For the first day we started with some games and designing the jewelries and talismans they wanted to make. We didn't feel the fact that they were 15-20 students, it was very smooth and they immediately got attached to us.

Katrina cut my hair. 

School day 2. They started making the jewelry with clay and didn’t notice how the time flew. I was learning too. Katrina showed me how to make simple shapes and how to do basic things. I also enjoyed it with the kids.

During the meeting we discussed and planned the mid-term trip and unfortunately got the news that Kristers and Katrina want to stop the project. It was a sad and emotional meeting.

School day 3.  We had even more children day by day and we reached 30, but they were very nice and were doing a great job. We usually were asking them about some games that they liked and they were happy to explain and play with us. Also we started preparing them for the exhibition they will have in March with the artworks they make, but of course we did that with some games and activities.

Trip to Bucharest. Mid Term. I was a bit worried as this was our first long trip all together without Mihaela. But surprisingly these were really fun and easy days full of different activities the facilitators prepared for us. I met 3 Armenian girls and one of them was my childhood friend, the world is so small. 

THE WATER MACHINE??? I think we discussed how perfect the water from the machine was during every meal. We spent a lot of time with other volunteers and made a few new and good friends. One honest and true thing we all agreed to - our project is the best :). 

The first heartbreaking farewell. We met Katrina and Kristers and said bye yet promised to meet again in the other country.

Trip to Brașov. As we had 3 more free days after the mid term, Nikola, Soukaina, Luca, Sinem and I decided to spend it in Brașov and of course visited all the iconic and “must see” places. It was a refreshing and motivating week.

Week 2

JEMOM exhibition. This was a promising start of partnership with the French institute and we hosted an exhibition at the library. We learned how to put together a molbert (șevalet), it was not as easy as it seemed. 

I played billiards for the first time in my life. It is also not as easy as it seems.

School day 4. I was nervous to continue the residency alone without Katrina, as I don’t know much about clay, and also 25 kids… But I think I managed?

The moment I entered the classroom they asked where Katrina was and got upset from the answer, but we all sent her a heartwarming video. For this day they created ceramic sculptures with the topic about good life and what people need for a better future. They did great as usual and I was happy there was no issue or obstacle. I also enjoyed the clay as I had time and they were so quiet and invested into the workshop.

School day 5. They tried to finish the jewelries and started painting them. And again I made an activity for them to get prepared for the exhibition they will have. It was really easy to work with them even though I had the biggest group.

Last day at school.  This day was a bit different, they finished the artworks and wrote articles for themselves, it will be included in their catalogue. After we finished all the work we played all the games they proposed.  I truly enjoyed this workshop at Ion Creangă school. 

We had the photoshoot for the rRoma catalogue. It was the time of the month for me - a bit stressful and full of work.

I finished my personal artwork, edited all the pictures and made some posters, and also did the catalogue (it still needs updates).

Week 3

Remember I told you we made friends during the mid term? So Joschua (a talented young guy from another project) decided to visit our exhibition and maybe consider joining us as a guest artist.

rRoma exhibition. In my opinion this was the smoothest exhibition, as it was somehow organized and everything was connected with each other. We should use the sticker scheme for the other exhibitions too. I think Joschua enjoyed being here and promised to come back.

Soukaina’s birthday. Nikola, Soukaina and I baked the sweetest birthday cake (well, I mostly watched how they were baking). 

We immediately jumped into Cucuteni projects, February is short and so is our time.

Visit to Cucuteni village. Unfortunately the museum on the hill was closed but we still had the chance to get inspired and feel the spirit. A short hike to the hills and the area that will be the Art Hub in 2028. Though it was cold and foggy we still had fun and got motivated. I already had an idea about my personal artwork and I hope to manage to finish it by the exhibition time. I will try to use the knowledge about the clay I learned so far. 

Week 4

I slowly started making women's figures out of clay (air drying clay for beginners for now hehe) for my artwork, time is gold. 

Nikola prepared the most iconic Czech night full of yummy food and nice videos. Thank you Nikola for the amazing intercultural night!

Mihaela builds soldiers from us!  She again decided to challenge us with this residency and make some changes. We had a choice to either go to school with regular residency as we did for the last projects, or to find local volunteers and do a project with them. Soukaina and I wanted to do something new, so we planned a video and photo project. So I contacted my students from Petru Rareș and they were excited to join. 

Joschua came back just in time with his amazing photography skills, he decided to join our team. A small meeting with evaluation and tips on how to find volunteers and encourage them to join Super Tineri.

Shooting day 1. The weather was against us. It was -2 degrees, but did we care? We were too excited to bring our visions to life. Some face paint, ceramic figures and the fields. It was cold yet everything went according to plan. We were satisfied with the results.

Shooting day 2. The guys brought a friend and I think it was a small success. They were enjoying the process. At this time we went to the Cucuteni site in Targu Frumos, it was an amazing hidden place and Joschua did a great job creating perfect scenes.

We are quite proud of the results we have so far. And I can’t wait to make the final video with our team and the posters from the pictures we have. 

My motivation is back and I’m looking forward to next month :) 

See you in spring!

Report written by Sona Tamrazyan, she's from Armenia and she's one of the 14 volunteers participating in Arts Lab 6.0, a project co-funded by the European Union through the European Solidarity Corps program.