"CULTURE-BODY - BODY-CULTURE. Roma and Gajos - Bringing Them Closer"
The general aim of this project is to provide an opportunity for the representatives of Roma culture in Europe to express themselves, in order to help build relations among various European Gypsy communities as well as between Gypsies and the majority societies around them. The three-year project started in 2003 with ambitious intentions. The first stages of this program entailed the organization of an international Roma festival and the opening of an exhibition of contemporary art in Graz in 2004.
  
The festival and the exhibition were followed with great interest. The next step in the project was a great challenge for all of the participants: Roma and non-Roma artists came from the various partner countries to create a piece of theater. The theme of the play was the relationship of Roma and gajo in East-Central Europe, which continues to be heavily burdened with mutual representations and stereotypes. The play was completed in the summer of 2005 and, the tour started in the fall of 2005. The tour included shows in Austria, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia and Romania. The participation of the Artemisszó Foundation in the project was supported by the Culture 2000 program through the National Cultural Fund.
Romanovela - Love in translation
Six actors and four musicians meet at an audition and they are waiting for the director. They have already been given their roles: there are Roma and non-roma, women and men. All that is needed for a "classical" soap-opera about love has been drawn up: encounter, happiness, confrontation, deception... Play and reality mingle while actors act, play music and dance. In the meantime inner spheres emerge awaiting for further dissection: to what extent are we prisoners of our own culture, how can images based on first impressions influence shaping of our relationship and what is the chance of mutual understanding?
Members of the ensemble of this experimental play have taken on an exciting challenge: they undertook to discover what happens if Slovakian, Romanian and Hungarian musicians, a German director, an Argentine musical leader and a Slovenian writer - Roma and non-roma - assemble to tell a story together about themselves, about encounter and love.
The play was shown in Hungary in Budapest, Pécs, Szeged and Debrecen. It was presented with Hungarian subtitles and voice comments. Other stations of the international tour were Austria, Slovakia, Romania, Slovenia and Italy. The play was realized with the support of the Culture 2000 Program and the National Cultural Fund. The collaborating organization in Hungary was the Artemisszió Foundation.
Author: Ana Lasic (Slovenia).
Director: Dirk Cieslak (Germany).
Choreographer: Annika Luschin (Austria).
Musical leader: Santiago Blaum (Argentina),
Musicians: Gusztáv Balogh (Hungary), Attila Boros (Hungary - Nomada ensemble), Gergely Katona (Hungary).
Actors: Milan Godla, Jan Ziga, Alena Klemparova, (Slovakia), Claudia Ramona, Andrei Seufan (Romania)
Project number:
CLT2003/A2/AT-2116
Project coordinator:
UNIT Verein für Kultur an der KF. Uni. Graz, Austria
Partner organizations:
SKLAD Republic of Slovenia Public Fund for Cultural Activities- Ljubljana, Slovenia
Jekhetane - Spolu- Presov, Slovakia
Concept Foundation- Bukarest, Romania
CGM - Consorzio Nazionale della Cooperazione di Solidarieta Sociale- Brescia, Italy
Hungarian participants:
Erzsébet Bajna, Teréz Orsós, Gyöngyi Ráczné Kalányos, the Nomada band, and the Khamoro dance group
Intercultural Club Evenings
The French Club Evening, 17th November, 2005
  
The 17th of November was the day of the much-anticipated French Club Evening. In Artemisszió, decorated as a French café, people were offered a peak into the French culture. The evening was filled with French music (even live, thanks to our French Leonardo da Vinci participants), French cuisine, quizzes, small presentations - and most of all a real French atmosphere. Thank you all for coming!
Swedish Club Evening - June 23, 2005, Artemisszió Foundation
  
The participants of one of our Leonardo da Vinci vocational training projects who spent three months in Sweden organized a Swedish cultural night upon their return to Hungary. The program included the projection of movies and images from Sweden, listening to Swedish music, the telling of stories and the recounting of the experiences of the participants, and tasting Swedish food. The organizers also put together a quiz about Swedish culture.
"Budapest From Different Points Of View" Photo Exhibition - January 30, 2005 - Nyitott Műhely
(The Future Capital Project of Gabriella Nagy)
  
In this exhibition we displayed amateur pictures of Budapest by Hungarian and foreign young people. The point of the exhibition was to display the multitude of perspectives people can have of one single city.
Intercultural Pre-New Year's Eve Party - December 29, 2004 - Roma Parliament
(The Future Capital Project of Gabriella Nagy)
  
The program of the evening
20.00 Movie: Presentation of the "Moving Cinema 2004 - 2005" (Vándormozi) project
The Vándormozi was a common project of the Palantír Film Visual Anthropological Foundation and the Fény-Árnyék Art Association organizing movie projections in villages and towns mostly inhabited by Roma experiencing serious ethnic and social difficulties. The projections were followed by common cooking, playing music, and other community programs. A documentary movie was shot and produced during the project about the activities of the Vándormozi, of which parts were shown at our intercultural evening followed by a discussion with the producers.
21.00 Concert of The Nomada Band.
The Nomada band was formed in 2003 and builds on the elements of Hungarian Gypsy folklore to create a unique sound. In its songs we can almost always feel the four-fourth rhythm which is secured by the "kanna", the "szájbögő" and the rhythm guitar. The grooves of the drum and the bass guitar color the rhythmic and acoustic world of this music, which is completed by solo instruments such as the flute, the violin, the lead guitar, and vocals.
Introduction of The "Ici Méme" Alternative Theater Company (France) - December 8, 2004. - Szimpla Café
(The Future Capital Project of Gabriella Nagy)
  
The program: "Agence de Conversation" directed conversation with the title "Apres quoi on court? What are we running after?"
The topic: City and Art - Art In Open Space
Discussion: Squat Culture In Europe.
The Film Projection of The (T)toniCorti Association (Padua, Italy), September 27, 2004 - Kultiplex Movie Theater
(The Future Capital Project of Gabriella Nagy)
A welcoming speech was given by the vice-president of the association, Nicola Bortolini. Then, open discussion about the birth of the association, its work and youth initiatives followed the projection of amateur short movies. A movie workshop was held the next day.
"...The aim of the projection is to give a picture of the various artists working in the association and the various expressive opportunities offered by the video camera. This includes animation, political satire, documentaries, video clips, video art, video performance, etc."
The Opening Night of The Future Capital Project of Gabriella Nagy, May 3, 2004 - Ráday Book House
Discussion of youth initiatives and volunteering, the presentation of a Future Capital project.
Invited guests: Artemisszió Foundation; Volunteer Center Foundation; Rügyecskék; Via Pacis Association Xena Centro Scambi e Dinamiche Interculturali, Padua
- Opening of the amateur photo exhibition titled "Padova From Different Points of View"
- Concert of the "Road Six" saxophone-quartet - Bulgarian and jazz fusion music
- During and after the concert the invited civil organizations offered information about their activities
- After the concert the Book House turned into a lively Italian piazza with open discussions, getting to know each other, food and drinks...
Portuguese Evening - June 28, 2004 - Arthus Theater
(organized by our EVS volunteer Marilia Coutinho)
Marilia Coutinho, an EVS volunteer from Portugal, was in Hungary between February 29th and August 23rd, 2004 under the "Artus" EVS project (2002-HU-17). She was a volunteer for Artemisszió Foundation as well as in the Artus Theater. At the club evening of Marilia, the Sub Rosa band gave a concert of medieval Portuguese music and, guests could taste many Portuguese specialties.
Mécsvilágok - July 1, 2003- Tabán Park
(The theater performance of our EVS volunteer Maria Lia Ferraro)
Our first EVS volunteer, Maria Lia Ferraro, was in Hungary between May 15th and November 15th, 2003. She was a volunteer at Artemisszió and at Artus Theater. She organized a performance in the framework of the Artemisszió club evenings.
Directed by Lia, the foreign participants of one of our Leonardo da Vinci projects presented a performance titled "Mécsvilágok" (candle lights) in Tabán, based on Bulgakov's Master and Margarita.
Theater Work In Social Fields
The Artemisszió Foundation joined the TWISFER (Theatre Work In Social Fields European Research) international Grundtvig project in 2003. The participants of the project were various universities, training organizations, and civil organizations from Austria, Slovenia, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Italy. The aim of the project was to explore the possible applications of theater in various social fields, to create an international database of these, to put together five sample-training modules, and to organize a several-day conference at the end of the project. The project was completed in 2005.
On May 3rd and 4th, 2005 the foundation organized a 12-hour introductory training on the technique of the "Theatre of The Oppressed" in Nyitott Műhely. The event was accomplished in cooperation with the Giolli Association (Italy). The invited trainer, Roberto Mazzini, introduced participants to the rudiments of this technique. All the participants as well as the trainer evaluated the training positively and, we hope that new projects will be born out of it. For more information:
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Theatre of the oppressed - introductory workshop held by Roberto Mazzini
3-4 May 2005, Budapest
organised by Giolli association, Italy and Artemisszió foundation, Hungary
with the support of the TWISFER - theatre work in social fields project (www.twisfer.org)
For more info:
http://ospiti.peacelink.it/giolli
www.theatreoftheoppressed.org
Roberto Mazzini [
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]
The process
DAY 1
1. Identity (somebody goes to the middle of the circle and says "I am X... I like..." - who agrees joins the person in the middle)
2. Expectations towards the meeting (similar to the previous task: we walk around, somebody tells an expectation and who agrees goes close to the person who said it)
3. Name and gesture
4. Interview with changing roles (you have to enter the character of the other!)
1st part - CONTRACT - people present themselves and what they want
5. Hypnosis (following the other person's hand)
6. Space series
walking, when the animator claps his hands, we have to - divide the space equilibratedly - create groups of 2, 3, 4 ... - put together two heads, 4 fingers, etc. - fix one foot on the ground, and stretch the rest of the body trying to make contacts with the others - to create/"act out" an object
7. Flash (one person creates an image, the others can open their eyes just for a second, and then they have to copy the image; then the same also in pairs)
8. Complete the image (we shake hands, then one person leaves and completes another image with his/her partner, then the other leaves, and so on)
9. Modelling (sculpturing, first directly, then by distance - not giving verbal or non verbal instructions, nor miming!)
10. Fainting (everybody gets a number, when you hear your number, you have to start to collapse and the others have o help you and hold you up - first you have to cry out and shout, then without voice, then collapse quicker...)
11. Palma, rabbits, elephant game
2nd part - GROUP BUILDING + DEMECHANISATION
12. Duplan's images
Stop, make an image without thinking.
Image of the word (we collect important words for us, and we have to mime he image it comes to our minds about it)
Image of the hour (what are you doing at 6 in the morning? At 9? At 12?...)
3rd part - KNOTS RESEARCH
DAY 2
1. Stretching
2. Clap (we pass around a clap, then 2, then also voices...)
3. Dulpan's rhythm (we create a common rhythm with our feet, then we start to move keeping the rhythm, clap our hands, still keeping the rhythm, etc.)
4. from Bradford (in pairs: A: 1, B: 2, A: 3, B: 1, etc. Then you substitute numbers with gestures)
5. Rhythmic machine (create a "machine", also cerate objects, Hungary, Italy, etc.)
Some more GROUP BUILDING + DEMECHANISATION
6. Sculpturer and clay
7. Images form context: have you an image about school/family/police...? who has, uses the others to create that image
Some more KNOTS RESEARCH
8. Working groups: 4 people in a group, each of us in the group have to create an image of a situation that is not good for him/her, an oppression, but we mustn't explain what our image means, the others have to find it out
4th part - CREATION OF THEATRE EMBRYOS
9. Rehearsal technique: we chose our scene and act it out. Before acting it out we present the scenario. What can you see? If the audience does not understand we can change things. Then act out the scene without voice - again we check what the audience understood; finally we cat out the scene.
5th part - CLEANING UP EMBRYO
10. Forum technique: we act out the scene. The jolly helps us to clean up the situation: who is the protagonist? (there should be only one!) What does he want? If the scene is clear, we can ask the audience about possible solutions: they can substitute characters and see whether their solution works.
6th part - TRANSFORMATION
CONCLUSION
Partners:
- Unit-Kulturverein an der Karl-Franzens-Universitat, Graz, Austria
- Institute For Educational Sciences at the University of Graz, Department of Social Pedagogy, Austria
- University Hanover, Germany
- GIOLLI, Center For Active and Theoretical Work In Theatre of The Oppressed, Italy
- Javni sklad RS za kulturne dejavnosti, Slovenia
- Dartington College of Arts, United Kingdom
- National University of Ireland, University College Cork, Ireland
- University of Prague, Department of Educational Sciences, Experiences In Drama In Education, Czech Republic
- CONCEPT Foundation (Bucharest), Romania
Project number:
110479-CP-1-2003-1-AT-Grundtvig-G1
Urban Images - Exhibition In The Museum of Ethnography
The photos and texts of the exhibition can be seen at www.etnofoto.hu/varoskepek
Urban Images is an exhibition organized by the Artemisszió Foundation, the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest, and the Musée Dauphinois in Grenoble, France and is based on an urban anthropological research project. (Museum of Ethnography, Budapest November 29, 2004 - April 10, 2005)
 
Urban anthropological exhibitions can attest to the unique existence of an urban neighborhood in various ways. They do not simply tell the story of the city, they do not only display sociological data, and they do not show a distanced view of the city. Instead, they get deeper into the kaleidoscope of the intimate spaces, subcultures, ethnic or professional groups, age groups, lifestyles, and venues and listen to how the city talks to the people, how people think about themselves and their environment, their lifestyles and their desires, etc.
The research project, started by the anthropologists of the Artemisszió Foundation, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and the Musée Dauphinois in Grenoble a few years ago, chose two venues for comparison: one of the neighborhoods of Grenoble (Berriat) and one of the neighborhoods of Budapest (Terézváros).
The two cities and the two neighborhoods are two different worlds, separated by thousands of kilometers. What explains the comparison? Mostly it is the similarity of the histories of the two neighborhoods: the fact that both neighborhoods were born as an outer district of their cities, giving home to the professions, people and groups not desirable in the city. Later, both of them became central and characteristic districts of their cities, elements that today influence the faces of both Grenoble and Budapest.
Beyond the presentation of the obvious differences and the occasional similarities, the exhibition tried to talk about the city, the urban resident, and the functional and symbolic uses of the spaces of the city.
The exhibition approached the intimate, interior reality of the district through the outside, more public face of it. In the first hall there were two spaces organized by their uses: public spaces, the spaces of the "me" being confronted with the outside world, and the communal spaces where the "us" appears, the community appropriating the space for itself.
The middle hall also talked about communal spaces, their temporary forms of use, and their visual representations through the aesthetics of the images and icons presented in public spaces.
The last hall entered the intimacy of private spaces. Here the community that appeared was the family. Most of the portraits displayed were taken in the intimacy of the home or in shops and workshops. Pictures taken by the residents of the two districts also complemented this section. Through these images they also became part of the exhibition - and the "imagined" world of their district.
The exhibition showed Berriat and Terézváros in a parallel manner with the help of the pictures taken by László Endre Hajnal and Michel Gasarian, as well as through the images of the residents and excerpts of interviews with local residents.
The first version of the exhibition, emphasizing the residents of the French neighborhood, was at the Musée Dauphinois in Grenoble starting on October 10th, 2003 and running for eight months.
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