Workshop opportunities during the school year 2018-2019
The fourth part of the TransFolk festival, Checkpoint #4, is themed Growing and in practice consists of different workshops, through which people of Loviisa can participate in the creation process of the festival’s content. Workshops are offered by the international guests of the Loviisa Artist Studio each during their time in Loviisa, as well as local artist professionals that participate in the TransFolk project.
Loviisa Artist Studio’s Artists during the school year 2018-2019
TransFolk’s producer Inari Porkka will accompany the workshops as language help and general assistance.
August
Ilar Gunilla Persson’s exhibition God Love Pride in Loviisa church, opportunity for an exhibition visit led by the artist. She is back in Loviisa for two weeks in November.
September-October 2018
Benjamin Schmid and Ursle Schneider from Switzerland are the Pataphysical Institute Basel. Pataphysics is the science of imaginary solutions, and the artists are creating works in the moment interacting with the participants, creating an experience of creativity and joy.
December 2018-January 2019
Diana Arce is a Dominican-American participatory performance artist and activist living in Germany. She uses artistic methods for political and cultural critique and to participate in public discourse. Her works deal with racism, etc. Her art needs the direct participation of the audience to be complete. In her work Diana uses plenty of humour, play and positivity, so that the audiences and participants can have an entrance to the world of the artwork.
February-March 2019
Vera Boicova from Russia is a performance artist, video artist, queer clown and puppeteer.
In Vera’s workshop participant create a character through masks and movement. Physical drama requires the participants’ full concentration (body, mind, imagination, emotions) and supports personal development. The workshop develops the participants’ body control and selfesteem, and rehearses taking others into account. Using and developing imagination are also central to the workshop through the development of the characters and making of the masks. As a result the participants will learn to create characters and stories, express emotions through movement and to perform as a group.
The workshop lasts 3 hours.
April-May 2019.
Lucine Talalyan is a visual artist-researcher from Armenia and one of the founders of the Queering Yerevan collective. The themes of her work are folk dress, local poetry, and their connection to each other, which she also plans to combine with the queer thematic.
Lucine is particularly interested in unofficial archives, and she is seeking for collaboration elderly women who are willing to open their photo albums, with photos depicting clothing styles from the beginning of the 20th century. She is also interested to meet post-Soviet immigrants whose visual archives (photos, albums) came with them when they immigrated to the country.
August
Ilar Gunilla Persson’s exhibition God Love Pride in Loviisa church, opportunity for an exhibition visit led by the artist. She is back in Loviisa for two weeks in November.
September-October 2018
Benjamin Schmid and Ursle Schneider from Switzerland are the Pataphysical Institute Basel. Pataphysics is the science of imaginary solutions, and the artists are creating works in the moment interacting with the participants, creating an experience of creativity and joy.
December 2018-January 2019
Diana Arce is a Dominican-American participatory performance artist and activist living in Germany. She uses artistic methods for political and cultural critique and to participate in public discourse. Her works deal with racism, etc. Her art needs the direct participation of the audience to be complete. In her work Diana uses plenty of humour, play and positivity, so that the audiences and participants can have an entrance to the world of the artwork.
February-March 2019
Vera Boicova from Russia is a performance artist, video artist, queer clown and puppeteer.
In Vera’s workshop participant create a character through masks and movement. Physical drama requires the participants’ full concentration (body, mind, imagination, emotions) and supports personal development. The workshop develops the participants’ body control and selfesteem, and rehearses taking others into account. Using and developing imagination are also central to the workshop through the development of the characters and making of the masks. As a result the participants will learn to create characters and stories, express emotions through movement and to perform as a group.
The workshop lasts 3 hours.
April-May 2019.
Lucine Talalyan is a visual artist-researcher from Armenia and one of the founders of the Queering Yerevan collective. The themes of her work are folk dress, local poetry, and their connection to each other, which she also plans to combine with the queer thematic.
Lucine is particularly interested in unofficial archives, and she is seeking for collaboration elderly women who are willing to open their photo albums, with photos depicting clothing styles from the beginning of the 20th century. She is also interested to meet post-Soviet immigrants whose visual archives (photos, albums) came with them when they immigrated to the country.
Local artists offering workshops
Whole school year
TransFolk’s producer and visual artist Inari Porkka is intersted in the accessibility of art. Workshop teaches to take the needs of disabled people into account, especially by considering how to enable the use of the internet for blind and visually impaired people by creating simple verbal descriptions of the visual elements one uploads to social media. The central themes of the workshop is to understand why it is important that all public spaces – physical as well as digital spaces – are accessbile to all people. During the workshop participants create verbal descriptions of art works,which then on their own right can function as video-sound art works that are accessible to the seeing and the blind the same way.
The workshop lasts 45 minutes.
Choreographer and dance artist Beniamino Borghi offers a workshop on dance films, mostly for middle schools and high schools (5th and 6th grades are also possible). The workshop gives an introduction to how to use the camera with different angles and playing with the frame of the screen. After a review of the film techniques through examples from different dance films, the participants will start to explore the limits of the frame of the camera, breaking the space and creating the illusion of space and time. Participants will also be guided in a physical exploration of different point of views and how changing them can effect the perception of space and gravity.
The aim of the workshop is to create a short dance film (in groups) that can combine different techniques and tricks to tell a simple story that stretch the time and transform the dimensions.
The workshop lasts 5 x 45 minutes.
Amandine Doat is a dance and circus artist based in Loviisa. More information about Amandine’s workshop later.
Spring semester 2019
Heidi Lunabba is an artist and curator based in Loviisa. Her workshop is called Other – normcritical photocomicworkshop for schools, where the participants discuss and makecomics about the participants’ experiences of societal norms. The comics combine photographs, text and drawn elements. The workshop begins with a conversation, the themes is approached in a way that participants don’t need any previous knowledge about it and the group processes through steps beginning with the general level to personal experiences. Participants don’t need to have an ideaof what they want to make when they begin the workshop. Stories are picked based on the conversation, and they are developed together into a manuscript. The method of creating the comics is inspired by the process of grassroots comics, where comics making is made accessible without the need for skills in drawing or illustration. Together the group chooses one or more stories which Heidi Lunabba will photograph, the students will also have an opportunity to photograph their own stories. Finished comics will be exhibited in the TransFolk festival.
The workshop lasts 3-10 lessons, the level of the discussion will be adjusted according to the ages of the participants.
TransFolk’s producer and visual artist Inari Porkka is intersted in the accessibility of art. Workshop teaches to take the needs of disabled people into account, especially by considering how to enable the use of the internet for blind and visually impaired people by creating simple verbal descriptions of the visual elements one uploads to social media. The central themes of the workshop is to understand why it is important that all public spaces – physical as well as digital spaces – are accessbile to all people. During the workshop participants create verbal descriptions of art works,which then on their own right can function as video-sound art works that are accessible to the seeing and the blind the same way.
The workshop lasts 45 minutes.
Choreographer and dance artist Beniamino Borghi offers a workshop on dance films, mostly for middle schools and high schools (5th and 6th grades are also possible). The workshop gives an introduction to how to use the camera with different angles and playing with the frame of the screen. After a review of the film techniques through examples from different dance films, the participants will start to explore the limits of the frame of the camera, breaking the space and creating the illusion of space and time. Participants will also be guided in a physical exploration of different point of views and how changing them can effect the perception of space and gravity.
The aim of the workshop is to create a short dance film (in groups) that can combine different techniques and tricks to tell a simple story that stretch the time and transform the dimensions.
The workshop lasts 5 x 45 minutes.
Amandine Doat is a dance and circus artist based in Loviisa. More information about Amandine’s workshop later.
Spring semester 2019
Heidi Lunabba is an artist and curator based in Loviisa. Her workshop is called Other – normcritical photocomicworkshop for schools, where the participants discuss and makecomics about the participants’ experiences of societal norms. The comics combine photographs, text and drawn elements. The workshop begins with a conversation, the themes is approached in a way that participants don’t need any previous knowledge about it and the group processes through steps beginning with the general level to personal experiences. Participants don’t need to have an ideaof what they want to make when they begin the workshop. Stories are picked based on the conversation, and they are developed together into a manuscript. The method of creating the comics is inspired by the process of grassroots comics, where comics making is made accessible without the need for skills in drawing or illustration. Together the group chooses one or more stories which Heidi Lunabba will photograph, the students will also have an opportunity to photograph their own stories. Finished comics will be exhibited in the TransFolk festival.
The workshop lasts 3-10 lessons, the level of the discussion will be adjusted according to the ages of the participants.