ARTIFICIAL WORKSHOPS

2.    meeting second part EUROPEAN ISLANDS  Lit ( 27. – 31. July 09 )

program elements / workshops

Lit /  I  1.  EUROPEAN ISLANDS IN  VILNIUS

Just after arrival in Vilnius, the artistic dialogue with the Lithuanian culture will begin. Led by the hosting  Lithuanian young people, the participants are invited to look for EUROPEAN ISLANDS in Vilnius. Led by the question “who owns the public space” ,  the focus of the cameras will be put on

• visibility of changes, in the face of the city and the inhabitants, since the country became independent  ( European orientation in Lithuania ? ) , especially as result of VILNIUS, EUROPEAN CULTURE CAPITAL 2009
• Interesting artificial designs of traffic islands
• other  avantgardistic architecture installations and art in public places / culture capital projects 
• contrasts/ interfaces of formal and informal urban design/city culture

Corresponding pictures/objects shall be found and documented by video/photo. The evaluation of the impressions will be presented as part of the educational workhop : “Who owns the public space / part II ”    

Lit / I  2.   EUROPEAN HANDS for Vilnius, European Culture Capital 2009

main open participation project, a 1:1 – model in original scale ( space min 3 m x 3 m x 3 m ).   The project consists of two parts :

• a social design concept, participation framework or – structure( prepared in Belarus )

and

• many individual part projects / contribution to develop and fill the common space. The iconography  and content of the individual parts will be created during the days in Vilnius and  could be linked with the different contexts and interests  and projects of the other groups participating at the Culture Capital activities.(  details see below )

Technical workshop – process / originations of participation of other festival youngsters: The construction / frame,  already prepared during EU ISL BY  will be re- constructed once again. At first the construction group will fix / tie the different part of the framework together, so that the  “open participation spaces”  to develop and fill the construction with individual contributions  become visible for the other guest-groups. How to motivate them to join the project , how to collect the ideas and visions from other participants ?  “belly stores “ !  Also prepared during  Eu Isl - BY meeting five “motivators” ( one from each team ) will have a box with pencils and a board with a foto of the participation framework at their body, so that are a mobile to visit other group at their places, present the foto of the participation- structure / explain the participation idea and ask for spontaneous sketches /drafts with links to the different themes of individual contribution - designs. If the co-authors from other groups are not willing or able ( "no time!”)to transfer the pictures by themselves into the EU - ISL – sculpture, the EU – ISL participants will “translate” the artistic offers by themselves for the common art object. 

To open the workshop also for other groups in the first common creative workshop all the associations, woken with the title, will be discussed artificially , by sketches, outlines and drafts. The participants are totally free to develop first ideas, visions , without direct connection to the task to design participation parts for a concrete traffic island situation in Vilnius. So the conventional  associations,  island = oasis of the quiet and relaxation with typical tourists and their attributes ( where are they in Lithuania ? ) could  literally be illustrated by putting such an island in the contrasting situation of  noisy, frequented traffic island in the centre of a city.

Creating contributions / individual design parts  and fill the common space

But in first line the participants should  be animated to create ideas with an European dimension. The following proposals, which could express  the visibility, signs and symbols of the European spirit were created by the involvement of the international groups:

• islands of freedom of expression - in Vilnius, for example the EHU (European Humanitary University) , which was forced to leave Belarus and found exile, openness and hospitality in Vilnius.
• expression of themes and topics of the Culture Capital themes : European diversity of traditions, habits, customs, art and youth cultures, united in a common sculpture.
• hidden history:  the design obtains its topics and motives from the treasure the local/regional stories and legends in the participating countries and in Vilnius.

•  Concerning Vilnius participants are invited to walk around, see and “read” the visible /hidden traces of the history of the European region, to secure them and find “ formal translations” into a contemporary artificial language. So the work also unfolds historic-political contexts.The project could be developed in cooperation with local organisations.
• partner circles:  Visualization of European Twin Town relationships : In the preparation period all groups should get to know, if there are relations to Lithuania. Concerning Germany, the city of Duisburg is connect with Vilnius, the district “Kreis Steinfurt” is connected with the district Telsiai in Lithuania and the city of Rheine in district Steinfurt ( KAJA West place ) is connected with Trakai . So projects could be developed , which symbolizes  the partnership  and could be also realized in Kreis Steinfurt and Duisburg.  Therefore the German und Lithuanian partnergroups should integrate some participants from Duisburg and/or Steinfurt and Telsiai. How the involvement of the youth in European partnerships could be expressed artificially ? , - beyond and better than  the  collection of the coats of arms of the twin towns, which often is represented in “artificial” traffic islands design.

• Migration of forms : documenta 12 in Kassel -Germany, most important art exhibition in 2007, was visited by some young people / art students from Romania, Lithuania and Germany, who participated in the EUROPEAN ISLANDS meetings. They went to Kassel also because they wanted to find the ways how to connect the themes of Youth meetings with the international art avantguarde. They detected the concept “migration of forms” and propose to adopt this concept for the EU ISL workshops and make it more “dangerous”: Not only an aesthetic, but also a social and a political experiment. The leading question: “ if we migrate from  Poland and Belarus to Lithuania the forms  migrate together with us. How may the use of  forms in different political contexts  lead the people to more freedom ( EU ) or just into the opposite, into the jail  ( Belarus )? What`s about the idea of twinning sculptures , one half in Lithuania, in the area of the EHU in Vilnius and one half in Belarus ? Only by migration from one place to the other we , as authors and participants, see the whole ,from the European point of view, but what will the public, the politicians see in Lithuania and Belarus, from their particular point of view. ?

Lit / I  3.  European Islands Exhibition : not only to present the concept of the wandering project and the different project- models, developed during Eur Isl. I in Aug. 08 in Germany, but also to offer to local partner-groups the chance to participate, up to 20 exhibition boards will be presented by the already participating groups from Germany, Poland, Russia, Belarus and Lithuania.