Arts Lab 7.0: Oliwia Mieczkowska | Month II

Residency

I had my first residency. Aya and I went to the Trinitas school and did our Folklore residency there. We created a wall piece that will be shown in the hallway of the school. The kids worked focused, and the end piece turned out better than I imagined.

I felt a bit scared at first, as I didn’t have any previous experience working with kids who did not speak the same language as me nor kids who have different kinds of disabilities. But I trusted my gut and my ability to work with kids overall. And in the end, it turned out good! The kids were so loving. Most of them were super motivated to do art and only waited for more things to do. It was a very pleasant experience and I even felt a bit sad to leave on the last day.

I found out how to communicate without using a lot of words. Body language, visual instructions and just doing it in front of them makes most of them understand what to do, and then they can explain it to the others. I also rediscovered how much I like to work with kids. They are so cute and happy to do anything other than schoolwork. They love to do art and I love to do it with them.

For the next residency, I want to do more games and energizers. I want to get to know the kids better and let them get to know me. I didn’t do that this time as I was just adapting to the way things had already been settled by Aya. But I should communicate my ideas as they may lead to a more pleasant experience. I also want to put more depth into the residency. The project was very basic and without much thought behind it as we were just improvising and trying things out. If I have the time, I’ll hope to do it better next time! I think it would be more fun for me and the students.

Personal artwork

For the MAF, I also did my personal artwork. I had SO many ideas about what to do. I wanted to experiment but also stick to something realistic. I talked with many people from the house as well as people not involved in the project. In the end, I settled on doing the abstract sheep head. It was a super pleasant process overall. In the beginning, I had a bit of problems as we didn’t have the right utensils. But by asking the local volunteers for help, I managed to work with it. They helped me cut the wood and, at some point, people from the house started to join in to try it aswell. In the process, I worked very efficiently and in the end it turned out great!

I felt very motivated to start and do something creative. It was an awesome feeling that stayed with me through the whole process. I was so grateful for the help I got and also was very happy to include people in the process and making the creation very special. I think it fits into the topic of folklore that a community did their part in creating my artpiece. At some point, I started to compare myself with others, and it felt a bit childish to create such a ‚simple‘ thing, but the feeling left as I realized that it is useless to compare. I had fun and created something and that’s what matters.

I found out that it’s best to just start and not overthink it. It’s also important to start as soon as possible as it's easier to work without stress, and it also helps when something doesn’t go as planned, and you have time to adapt or fix things. I have to remember that I am a volunteer and not a professional making art for a living and that the process should be fun and not extremely stressful and draining. I tried to work in the studio to separate my work environment from my living environment, but it turned out that it was a big effort to get my ass up and go over to the studio and, in the end, I brought all my stuff over to the house and finished up there. It worked a lot better as I was more flexible and could work even for ten minutes in between small things.

For the future I want to do things in a very similar way. I want to start early and have fun. I want to experiment and grow in the process but also not overwhelm myself with work and experiments. Just to be sure that something good comes out in the end that I am satisfied with. 

Catalog

I volunteered to design the catalog for MAF, but under the condition that I would not work alone. I really like designing and already have experience with Canva and, therefore, I thought it would just be a side activity that I would do for a few days.

In the process, it was very hard for me to start on it as I didn’t have a lot to work with. The texts came in pretty late and for the pictures I had to run after so many people for many days to choose and upload their favorite ones.

It was a VERY exhausting process. But I also understood that people are still busy with their personal artwork and the catalog is not their priority. After getting into the flow, I started to have fun and remembered why I volunteered to do it in the first place. But I was SUPER stressed. The deadline was the next day and I didn’t even finish half of my work. I felt very sad and disappointed that, besides Kerem doing the introductions and cover, I was alone on designing the main part. I had a crashout and got people included in doing the last part as I would not have finished it on my own. In the end, I stayed up till 3:00 am to finish it up, as I thought that we were printing the next day. It is over a week after the first exhibition and we still haven’t printed it. It makes me feel so disappointed and unappreciated as I have worked my ass off for nothing. 

I found out not to trust people with deadlines and that I have to remind people a million times and sometimes even do the work for them as they don’t feel obligated to do it.

In the future, I will either not do the catalog at all or just focus on a smaller part as it was a very stressful experience. But I still love designing and would be very sad if I gave up on it all just because it didn’t work as planned the first time.

Exhibition

We did three exhibitions in total. The first ones for teachers, politicians and mostly adults at the Hub. The second one was for kids at the House of culture. And the third one we did for local volunteers and other interested people in the Hub again. Not a lot of people came all three times. But we still had a good time.

I didn‘t know what to expect at first and, therefore, I was nervous and curious at the same time. During the first exhibition, I was overwhelmed by the number of people coming at the beginning and then surprised and lost by the fact that basically everyone left at the same time and the whole Hub was empty. It was hard to get the adults involved in the activity as most of them didn’t have a lot of time or thought it was kind of childish. But then, as most people left, only the ones who were truly interested stayed, and it was nice talking about the art and the experience. The second exhibition was a lot more chaotic. It felt more like a random workshop with kids than an exhibition, as no one brought their artwork in fear it'd get destroyed by the kids. But they were a lot more involved in the activities and I had a lot of fun doing little sheep with them.

I discovered what the exhibitions look like in this project and how to prepare for them in the best way possible. I also learned how to work with adults and with a lot of kids at the same time. I also got inspired by the artworks and the interactive parts of other artists.

For the future, I want to improve my interactive part of the exhibition. I want it to be adaptable for kids and adults. But I would also like to keep my creativity. It was different and took a bit more time, but I see it as something positive. I also have to put my expectations lower to not get disappointed if not a lot of people come or want to participate, but at the same time make more effort into advertising and inviting people. In terms of socializing, I want to get out of my comfort zone. I want to talk to people more, take the first step and not be scared by the fact that they don’t necessarily speak English. I want to share my process more and share my love for art with everyone who lets me!

On arrival

We had to do a mandatory on-arrival training online. We met up for five days online with different volunteers in Romania and talked about different topics. The internet was a huge problem at first, but we managed by doing groups and using one computer with multiple people. 

The whole training felt very weird and unnecessary. I felt confused as they repeated almost everything I had already learned from my sending organization. But I tried to have some fun with it. Time went by faster when I participated and by doing so, I got into contact with some of the volunteers in other cities.

I found out about some of the other projects in Romania and got to know a lot of people. I also learned some stuff about socializing, communication, Romania itself and ways to manage my emotions and budget.

I don’t think that I will have another on-arrival meeting, but for the mid-term meeting I would like to make even more contacts and have as much fun as possible! I would like to see it more as a learning opportunity than a burden, but it's hard when everyone around you is complaining about it constantly.

Smaller activities

We had one more meeting with the local volunteers to learn Romanian with a focus on useful Romanian sentences. It was less stressful than the first one as it was less of a competition, and we had more time. I learned how to introduce myself in Romanian and how to form simple sentences for everyday situations. For the future, I would like to take my notes back home to look at them more than one time to build long-term memory. I would also like to try using them in real life situations and not be scared of judgement and therefore switch back to English.

We went to a pumpkin festival in Pașcani, and I was supposed to do the photobooth with Salma. At that moment, the spot we were arranged for was not as we had imagined, and therefore we had to switch plans. We started to approach people and try to engage them into taking pictures, but nearly everyone was very shy and did not want to try. In the end, we only got a few pictures and the rest of the day we helped the face painting team or just enjoyed the event. It felt a bit lazy, but we excused it with the current situation that we can not really change and, in the end, we still had a good day and made a lot of new contacts and got to know a lot of new things about Romania and its tradition.

As part of the planning for the catalog, we did a photoshoot in traditional Romanian clothes. It turned out AMAZING. We all had a lot of fun and I think everyone looked very beautiful. It’s one thing to see other people wearing them, and it's a completely different perspective to see the people I know wear them. I did a lot of portraits that day. Even if they are not super original or hard to do, it was the first time I really photographed such a big group of people. In the future, I wouldn't change a thing. The pictures turned out great and we had a great time.

We had our first supertalk! Salma and Monica did it on clay, and it was so much fun. It was the first time I worked with real clay, and it was not as easy as I'd thought at first. For the future, I could imagine using it as a form of art for my personal artwork. I had a lot of fun and would’ve loved to do a lot more trinkets with it, but sadly, there was not enough time.

We started having mentor meetings. We did one on citizenship, entrepreneurship and personal/social competences. I have learned a lot in all of them. I like the way the mentors combine theory and practice during those meetings and I like how the topics are divided in the first place. They are all very useful in our lives right now, and I think they will also be useful in the future. 

House/Living situation

The house is very chaotic. We still can’t figure out how to keep the place tidy. Some little groups have settled down but overall we live in harmony. I like the general vibe of the group, I like the friendships I have built already, and I can’t wait to deepen them in the future. I have learned how different we are even on the little things like how we manage special occasions or how we deal with difficult situations. Nevertheless, I’m proud of how we handled important stuff professionally. I would like to fix the small issues with the tidiness and organization in general, so everyone feels like they’re contributing to the community and not only the same three people.

On our free days we did a short trip to Constanța for three days. It was SO AMAZING. I love how it has strengthened our bond and the group overall. We saw a different perspective of each other because traveling can be very exhausting and stressful. You can clearly see the difference between people who like to have a plan and be organized (like me) or people who just depend on others to plan everything and just go with the flow of the situation. In the future I would love to do more trips like this! It was great to see more of Romania and to spend quality time with the group outside of work and outside the house.

Jemom

This week we have started with the topic of Jemom. One of our mentors did a short presentation to slowly introduce us to the topic, and we visited the Jewish cemetery.

It is a very sad topic, and I'm a bit scared of what an impact it will have on me and my mood in the next few weeks. But at the same time, I'm very excited about doing my next project and about working the residency with kids again. For now, I'm planning to do a collage of different small details that have caught my interest and to connect them on a canvas. For the residency, I hope to focus on a few specific situations during that time and do a short film with the students.

I have already learned about the death train, the mostly abandoned cemetery, the general situation in the past and about the tragic things that have happened.

In the future, I hope to get even more into the details by reading more articles, watching more movies and documentaries, and by visiting the museum in Iasi.

This monthly report was written by Oliwia Mieczkowska, our Polish/German volunteer taking part in a seven-month Arts Lab 7.0 mobility, co-funded by the European Union under the European Solidarity Corps.