The neighbors crowd around, with the help of our true ‘resident curator’! For every passers-by he invents a joke and finds a place in the comic!
Comic on the wall
Category: Artistic Process
A birthday
This week we were invited to a jubilee birthday in the mahala, but didnt know what to give as a gift. So we asked a local expert on beauty and budgeting. We found this purse (the birthday girl turning 50 is a shopkeeper) and then added a design to make it more unique and pretty.
Crafts
Yesterday we were with a self-taught entrepreneur craftswoman. Among other things she has been making re-useable, handmade sponges both for the shower and for washing dishes. Which you do not throw away. But wash, take care of and keep for longer, producing less waste. These are then sold to neighbours and very popular. And she lives in Stolipinovo along with her neighbours. This kind of story is not usually seen, or recognised for its innovation and environmental sustainability. She is now teaching me how to knit these, so that I may create my own business among my neighbours. And gave me an easy and simple example to try my first knitted sponge.
Çukur
Another of the themes we will make an art-book about has emerged. Çukurs are everywhere in Stolipinovo, and they are enigmatic. They are even spilling throughout the rest of Plovdiv but Bulgarians don’t really notice them. In the hood you can see them on walls, homes, clothes, bodies… One of the most frequent visual symbols that the younger people we worked with also drew again and again.
Works in progress
Hannah has been commissioned to make a few drawings etc for different people in Stolipinovo based on careful guidance, advice and adjustment at every stage. Here are some sneak peeks at the works in progress.
A favour
The scarf Mila, a Bulgarian friend of ours, asked for is ready, it was kept safe and sound in a special place for our return to the neighbourhood to collect it. When Mila showed pictures on her phone of the kind she wants, they said: “Yes, this is the vogue on the net, but there is even newer fashion! Here we know both the old and the new fashion!”
Have humility
Recently we got the chance to speak with a leading name in participatory art in the UK, Francois Matarasso. He makes community art projects with various marginalised groups. In homes for the elderly, mentally ill, disabled, etc. Something he told us:
When I am there I am trying hard to strip myself from power and make myself vulnerable. Because there is a huge power difference between us. Even if I am not rich or an institutional employee, I have power.
For a start, I am the only one who knows why I am there. Then, I have a safe home to go back to and I have some money in the bank. If I ask them something, they cannot say no. Because this is how our society is set up: when you are told something by a middle class person, you just do it.
So I am working to make myself vulnerable. To not have my own understanding of what is happening there determine our relation. I will use a word, which is dangerous to use, and it is dangerous, because it has been interpreted in many ways. Humility. I try to achieve humility. This is not an easy challenge.
Detail
Detail of a beautiful collection of handmade, knitted accessories given to us as a gift by a woman in Stolipinovo.
Matarasso
After an enthusing conversation with the author of A Restless Art, a community and participatory art expert, there is many new and interesting ideas flowing! The book is free online and an invaluable resource for critical analysis of the field, and emphasises the importance of careful consideration, respect, humility and listening when working alongside marginalised people.
A gift
A gift, a beautiful thing unanimously voted. Could only be made better by adding fairy lights Given to me by someone yesterday while we played a Ludo game the grandma had bought for 1,20.
Дуварколектив: социално ангажирано изкуство в Столипиново 