NEWSLETTER Welcome to ARTCYCLING! Autumn is bringing winds of creativity to our workshops. We are already in the process of creating decorative arts and the experiences are being different in each partner country, but the common point is that the artists are enjoying it and developing their creativity. At the same time, our artists are following a course on ICT in design and web production to apply new technologies into the artistic creation, so they can make the most of a wide variety of tools.
Enjoy your reading!
STARTING THE CREATIVE PROCESS In INTRAS we started the artistic workshops in June and, hopefully, the creative process will last until September 2017. We are implementing the workshops twice per week in the day center for people with mental illness that INTRAS runs in the traditional village of Toro, in the province of Zamora. The group is composed by ten people with severe and prolonged mental illness (mainly schizophrenia) that regularly attend to the center and that have any artistic abilities or just artistic curiosity; we are helping them to make the most of their potentialities.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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So far, we have already tried some carpets made of old fabrics (jeans and t-shirts) and the results are being really nice! We are also making traditional figurines made of paper mache (made of old newsletters) and recycled ceramics for our collaboration with the artistic national exhibition “Las Edades del Hombre�.
This is only the beginning! You can find updated information about what we are doing in our blog. In Pacificstream we are getting up and running after the summer break. We are organising a series of workshops for our artists. The first one was delivered by our colleague Laura-Kate on silkscreen printing in her workshop in Constellations based here in Liverpool. We have others in the pipeline this month one on natural dyeing and the first of our IT workshops on how to make the most out of social media.
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Our project workshop in Make Liverpool will be able to take advantage of the new facilities and equipment that they are installing and Dennis has already used the large factory space to test out his drones and rehearse his performances. Everyone is looking forward to the next phase of the project and we are recruiting additional artists. We are getting additional support to help Jane with the organisation of the ‘creative process’ by first holding some ‘brainstorming’ sessions to kick start new work and product production. “Onward and upward!” the Foundation Retextil, we started the In
creative process already during the workshops connected to the learning period. One of the traditional technics we learned was the triaxial weaving, which is a complex weaving technique using three different directions and 30-60-120 degrees. We combined this technique with crochet and created a whole new outlook for hexagonal objects. Out of these hexagonals it is possible to put together all kinds of shapes and structures. The hungarian art director and leader, Angéla Thiesz created a monumental plan for a festival dancefloor decoration and after the acception of the idea, the Foundation and the ArtCyclers created hundreds of triaxial-crocheted hexagons out of raw strings and colorful organza. The crochet surface combined with smooth organza fabrics gave an amazing view with the different structures and characteristics of the textiles. Beside the triaxial weaving the ArtCyclers have a lot of ideas and plans how to keep on going with the process. The cross-sewing method they learned gave a great idea to create one big carpet together with this specific method. The basket weaving and the leather braiding technics will be put into the practice of the traditional retextil methods and they will experiment with new forms and directions. Also the personal and the communal creation is inspired in the process, we would like to create individual and group products, too. All the learned technics gave new and inspiring opportunities for the Artcyclers to grow and develop their knowledge and to figure out new
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ideas. In Cultura21 Nordic’s Danish Artcycling group, we have expanded our group of participating artists, over the summer and early fall we have had 6 new participants join the group. Each one brings with them a variety of interests and media/material focus, questions to explore in their practices with Artcycling. The group now includes participants working with seaweed sculptures, apple pulp ‘leather’ woolen baby diapers, and photography. Besides clay work, performance, collage, assemblages and other forms yet to be described. The group differs a bit from the other countries by having quite some practice in artistic creation, although not necessarily with upcycling or recycling. This means that we are focusing more on finding the best ways to get mutually inspired, and to create a common exhibition format that will motivate everyone to participate. In this process, we will also be bringing in a few more craftspeople. But for now, we decided to go hunting for the right spot to land our work with exhibiting the future Artcycling works. This search led us to yet another fantastic site, after having checked out places such as the Goldmine project and the facilities of Flydende By, that will certainly inspire us in our process. The place and organisation we have found to collaborate with is called Theatre Island, Teaterøen. This will be the site where we will host the first part of our Danish Artcycling exhibition in 2017. Teaterøen is a platform and a meeting point for the collaboration between different art forms, not only theatre, but also other performing and plastic arts. Originally mainly a theatre group, it has developed into a facility p ro v i d i n g organisation, where multiple actions can take place. Located in former military buildings from the mid 1800’s and into mid 20th century, the site offer a series of spectacular post-military/post-industrial frames and sites for artistic expressions. The leader of Teaterøen, actor and director Peter Kirk, opened his doors to the Artcycling community so that we can find the best ways to present our work a year or so from now. On October 20th, we explored the place to begin to envision where and how our creations can live together with the site. We particularly fell in love with the old bunker with its fabulous
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outdoor area, an overgrown labyrinthic path leading to rooftop terraces and wild garden spots; and the old wooden demagnetising building, both in the pictures. More will follow in the months to come, but from our first visit we know: the artcyclers are in love with Teaterøen!
KNOWING FUNDACIĂ“N INTRAS INTRAS Foundation is a Spanish non-profit organisation that was
stablished in 1994 and which main aim is to help people with any disability due to a mental illness to recover their own project of life. Its principal objective is to develop and disseminate actions in order to improve the quality of life of people suffering from mental illness, carrying out the following activities: - Cultural and creative activities. - Psychosocial rehabilitation, labor integration and educational programs. - Cooperation projects in socio-health matters with Latin American countries. - Research, technological development and innovation projects. We work mainly with people living with mental illness but we also work with the elderly, people with cognitive impairment and the professionals working with them. INTRAS supports several artists with mental health issues, promoting their labour and social integration. We organize and collaborate in several cultural and artistic events and art festivals with the aim of facilitate and visualize the artistic work and talent of people with mental challenges: the Festival Espacio Mental, the Cantarranas Day, Pecha Kucha nights, collective street graffiti paintings, concerts, etc. Besides, we have a close collaboration with National Museum of Sculpture with whom we are currently developing a project about art and curation. In September, we have moved our central headquarters to another location within the same city, Valladolid. We are growing and our house has to grow too!
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For more information you can check our website and our social networks, facebook and twitter.
The next issue‌ 2016: A creativity year for the artcyclers Writing a blog: a story of success.
We will come back in December!
For further information, please contact us via e-mail: proyectos2@intras.es You can find us on Facebook as well: https://www.facebook.com/Artcycling