Arts Lab 6.0: Sona Tamrazyan - Month 6

Week 1

Turkish night. What can I say, amazing food, fun kahoot, everything was amazing, thanks Sinem :)

French Institute exhibitions and workshops. The week started with a lot of work and preparation. 3 days 3 different exhibitions with workshops. It was intense but also fun to organize. We solved all the popping issues very fast and organized the space collaboratively. All the 3 days were different because of the students and of course from the topics of the artworks, also I had very different workshops for every day. It was a bit tiring but the event was overall successful. We also managed to visit the Cucuteni museum created by the students of the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University. 

We didn’t forget about having fun in between the working days, so we organized a fun and refreshing evening at a billiard place in Iași. Sometimes we just need to spend time together without working. 

Week 2

New week, new museum.

To be honest this week seemed the longest. It was sleepless. Thanks to Luca who decided to do the catalogue for Cucuteni, it saved a lot of time for me to manage my artwork, which in my visions was a small immersive room. It needed a lot of detailed work. I started making the women's figures even 2 weeks before so this week I was focused on the wall paintings. It was supposed to be brown paper rolls covered with a lot of Cucuteni symbols. It took more energy and time than I was assuming, so I did the paper rolls for 4 days and nights with almost no sleep. It was stressful but I enjoyed the main process of painting the symbols. Cappuccino became part of it, she enjoyed sitting on the papers and supporting me with her cute presence. Time to time I was collaborating with Joschua to see how the video was turning. I  fully trusted him with it, and he did really great. Everyone loved the video. I was excited to start creating the room and to see how the video is gonna be projected there. And even during this crazy busy time I managed to find some time to dye Joschua’s hair, he’s blond again. The night before the exhibition day, Ella did the best surprise and came back to our mixed family. Me and Luca missed her so much in the room, and now its finally complete again. 

Luca was working on the catalogue and I was checking on her whenever she needed help. I'm so happy with her growth.

After those hard working days and nights we finally made it to the exhibition day. We started arranging the space, I had my helpers - Ella and Chris. Without them I would not make it. Everything turned as I imagined and I was quite proud of myself and everyone who helped me to make it. Exhibition itself was very active and fun. Our local volunteers also visited to see the results, they liked everything. The upgrade from the first exhibition to the last was so obvious. It was so satisfying to realize that we really grew here.

Week 3

We said bye bye to Joschua but not for too long. Hopefully he will return at the end of March. I think everybody would agree he is such a perfect part of this team.

Free day - cafe with Nikola, books and regeneration. It was a needed rest day. 

After finishing all the museums we had a big meeting with planning March and the remaining events and tasks. It took us 3 days and 3 meetings to at least plan the 50% of the tasks. It's gonna be an intense month. We slowly started preparing the students' exhibition for the Ion Creangă school. I started glazing some of the fired sculptures. I think I gained one of my goals to work with clay. 

Realizing that the project is coming to its end is a bit upsetting. I decided to visit my friend in Cluj again so I started planning a small trip next week.

At the end of the week it will be Moroccan night, so Nikola and I started helping Soukaina with cooking tonight. 

Not gonna lie, helping in cooking for cultural nights is more of a cultural exchange. It has its own special moments. 

So see you after the Moroccan delicious night.

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.