Exhibition opening and performance of "Magic Carpets" project "The Merge”

Exhibition opening and performance of “Magic Carpets” project “The Merge”

2022-10-10

Marija Nemčenko ir „Herojaus“ mokyklos mokiniai_Gintarė Žaltauskaitė

Joana BC (Portugal), Barbara Gryka (Poland) and Marija Nemčenko (Lithuania) are taking part in the “Magic Carpets” project “The Merge” in Kaunas. The main idea of the project is to unite and gather together the newly established Ukrainian community with the local citizens of Kaunas.

Artists were leading workshops for a whole month, as part of their artistic residencies in Kaunas, for a joint Lithuanian-Ukrainian group of students from two branches of “Herojus“ school. Together with the students, artists were exploring the architecture of different school buildings, creating their own future schools, recycling old materials by creating collages and costumes, and learning about the migratory nature of the hornbill plant.

Barbara Gryka (Poland), during her artistic residency, invited students of “Herojus” school from Lithuania, Ukraine and other countries to the workshops, with the main idea to unite the children of various nationalities. During the activities participants were asked about visions of architecture, to pay attention to the different architectural styles of their school buildings, when thinking approaches were borrowed from the practices of Oskar Hansen. Architecture is an important part of people’s lives, so the project invites us to look at it from past, present and future perspectives.

During Barbara’s workshops, students drew how they feel in their school buildings and also built the future schools of their dreams using paper and cardboard. The dream school is used for the performance that Barbara Gryka together with the artist Joana BC (Portugal) and the children’s group of the “Herojus” school developed for the “CityTelling Festival”.

Joana BC (Portugal) during the workshops for a group of Ukrainian and Lithuanian students from “Herojus” school, encouraged kids to create their own collages using the thousands of colorful, variously shaped cut-outs that Joana made herself. Children also used them as decorations for the costumes from old, reused materials such as paper, plastics, metals and other trash. This way, Joana BC, invited to act together, find new inspirations and enjoy the process of intuitive creation. The costumes are used for a performance that Joana BC together with the artist Barbara Gryka (Poland) developed together with the children for the programme of the “CityTelling Festival”.

Marija Nemčenko (Lithuania / Scotland) invited the students of the “Herojus” school from Lithuania, Ukraine and other countries to explore partisan horticulture and get to know fireweed which not only heals the earth, people, but also (metaphorically) the connections between the people. In the workshops for children led by Marija, fireweed became a symbolic link between Lithuania and Ukraine, as well as the two branches of the “Herojus” school after sowing the seeds of this herb. The seeds are sown in ‘seed dumplings’ that were created and decorated by the kids from paper mache clay. “Seed dumplings” were thrown along the path between the school’s branches, which, given the suitable conditions, will sprout into flowering plants over time at the locations marked in the maps of Kaunas.

 

We invite you to the opening events of project “The Merge”:

11th October (Tuesday) 

Opening of the exhibition (17:30), where you will see the works created by the students of the “Herojus” school during the workshops led by Joana BC (Portugal) and Barbara Gryka (Poland) and the results of the artistic residency project of Marija Nemčenko (Lithuania).

Location: “Herojus” school, Laisvės al. 55, Kaunas (third floor)

The performance (18:00) was created by Barbara Gryka, Joana BC and the students of the “Herojus” school.

Location: “Herojus” school, Laisvės al. 55, Kaunas (outside, in front of the school entrance)

Visiting the exhibition 12th October (Wednesday)-16th October (Sunday), 16:00-18:00, by registration only brigita@biennial.lt

 

Free entrance

Residency project at the EU Magic Carpets platform in Kaunas

Project curator: Brigita Bareikytė

Co-funded by European Union and Lithuanian Council for Culture; partner Kaunas – European Capital of Culture 2022; project partners: “Herojus” school, Ideias Emergentes, Wrocławski Instytut Kultury