Catalog MAF - Muzeul Alternativ de Folclor

M F

Muzeul Alternativ de Folclor

Arts Lab 4.0

SARATORRIJOS Federica ColzanI Yavuzhan gUMUS

Artist from Spain, 30 years old, she is specialized in Art Directing and design.

Interested in copywriting and creative concept creation.

Painter artist, from Italy, 19 years old, she is specialized in free handpaint and create her own painting reality.

mAJA MöRCHEN

Artist from Germany, 18 years old, she is specialized in fashion design.

Sculpture and visual artist from Turkey, 23 years old. He is specialized in sculpture and new technologies.

Artist from Jordan, 23 years old, is a multimedia designer and visual storyteller.

Artist from Egypt, 18 years old, she is specialized in circus, theatre and dance.

Actress from Italy, 19 years old, she is specialized in theatre.

Jazz singer, composer and song writer from Turkey, 25 years old.

Wasan Abusummaqah Ataota Chiara Gentili Cihan Falez

Cultural manager

Mihaela Diana Podariu

She is a lifelong learner, and her area of interest is developing projects that motivate artists to become socially responsible and use their art to bring people together to build better communities. For the next seven years, her plans are to engage one hundred international artists to transform Târgu Frumos in an Alternative Art Town, creating four experiential museums inspired by the local cultural heritage: MAF (Alternative Museum of Folklore), JEMOM (Jewish Memorial Open Air Museum), MARr (Alternative Rromanes Museum) and Cucuteni Alternative.

Introduction

Folklore is a way of thinking outside of rigid norms, it is a simple way of expressing life, emotions, the vision of the world, it is the form in which the knowledge about everything around has been transmitted over time. Folklore has a pronounced national character, reflecting people’s ideas, feelings and conceptions, being the main ways of past artistic expression. However, it can be a source of inspiration for today’s creators, or a surprising resource for contemporary art.

The eight editions of the Folcloristica Festival, a non-formal event promoting, integrating and revitalizing the traditions and customs that are the cultural basis of Iași county, put us in contact with people, traditions, emotions and

needs. In every commune that hosted us there is folklore, genuine or taken over, which stands out, in the view of young people, through dances and rituals, traditional clothing, stories and characters, lively dances, various dishes and liquors, connections between people and outstanding artistic manifestations. At the last edition of Folcloristica, 233 artists took the stage, and in eight years, there were more than a thousand, and they all came voluntarily, they made an effort to be there, being motivated by the inner desire for artistic expression.

Inspired by everything we discovered through Folcloristica, we included in our development strategy for the next seven years an initiative called the Alternative Folklore Museum.

The first installation of the Alternative Folklore Museum - MAF involves eight volunteer artists from Italy, Spain, Germany, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, specialized in sculpture, drawing, music, graphic design, fashion, photo-video, theater, circus and dance. The interested students of

the “Petru Rareș” Technological High School in Târgu Frumos participated after school hours, in eight artistic residencies, the results will be exhibited in the school, and in other places that want to promote folklore in an alternative way, close to young people.

Why do we do this? Because we want to encourage children and young people from rural and small urban areas, to discover and get attached to the cultural heritage of Iași county.

public decides to contribute. Everything may look like a game, so the audience, surprised by the approach, is initially unaware of the proximity to heritage.

By 2028, four alternative museums will be launched in Târgu Frumos, bringing together a hundred international artists and a thousand local volunteers to discover and reinvent the local cultural heritage so that it becomes a tool for local development.

An alternative museum is an experiential learning process that includes artistic products created by local and international artists, inspired by elements of local cultural heritage - customs, practices, places, objects, artistic expressions, values, stories, etc., and various non-formal and artistic methods combined in a story that aims to stimulate the active participation of various audiences, targeting young people. In an alternative museum, space and objects are just a pretext, what matters is the experience, the reflection process and how the

It was a challenge to choose which stories to tell, and we didn’t opt for the filter of theoretical authenticity. What is specific to Iași county? We would have needed a serious folklore approach and even field research, but until we find the resources to do this, the first installation of the Alternative Folklore Museum - MAF, is an invitation to explore.

The concept of the first exhibition is inspired by the Miorița ballad. The international artists have chosen and created together with the public made up of students of the “Petru Rareș” Târgu Frumos High School and local volunteers and artists, 22 characters from Romanian folklore.

The Moldovan shepherd and his sheep are the protagonists of the first MAF exhibition, and the artistic presentation includes creations and activities facilitated by artists from other countries, in several variations. The first scenario, which we have already presented at the Gheorghe Asachi County Library in Iași, pro-

poses ten challenges to the public: form teams, answer five questions, accompany the artist who sings the ballad, identify the emotions in the ballad and express them through mime or drawing, debate the choice of the Moldavian shepherd (peace or war, personal or community sacrifice), represent important scenes of the ballad using textiles or clay, discover a new board game, introduce another Romanian folkloric character into the story to offer a happy ending to the ballad, and record the new stories using clay statues and the voices of the team.

Atelier Myth Board Game

of Sara Torrijos

In this edition Arts Lab 4.0, Sara Torrijos multidisciplinary artist, has developed for the first edition of the Alternative Folklore Museum, an atelier for the creation of a card game.

The atelier is divided into different activities, including the collection of stories of characters from Romanian mythology, illustration workshops, storytelling workshops and the development and promotion of a prototype game.

The objective of this project is to adapt the imaginary that makes up the Romanian mythology to a game composed of 22 cards with the participa-

tion of students from Petru Rareș Highschool and local artists from Ruginoasa, Iasi and Târgu Frumos. This atelier has allowed young people to enter the world of design and product creation, as well as to learn the basic tools of artistic production.

MUZEUL ALTRNA TIV DE FOLCLOR

O

Folklore means

remembering the origins in order to not make it disappear completely.

It has been amazing to create a complete 22 characters from Romanian mythology, from the masterpiece of Miorița to demonic entities such as Marțolea or Samca.

To delve into these stories and to realise that they are more present in the life of the Romanian community than I thought made me discover that Romania’s cultural heritage is infinite.

I have also been able to share space, time and ideas with very talented artists in the community.

Atelier symbols of folklore

of Federica ColzanI

For the museum of alternative folklore I involved the students of Petru Rares Highschool in a workshop of which the topic were the symbols and the characters of Iasi’s folklore re-interpretated by the students.

The first phase of the work consisted in creating a safe space to make the participants feel free enough to create their own versions of the folklore. The result of this phase was used to make a composition for a mural painting in one of the school walls, with the help of students and volunteers. The concept of the mural painting was used also for an atelier in Folcloristica festival in which each child had two spaces on the wall of a classroom to paint

symbols and pottery inspired by Deleni village folklore.

Another product is a canvas in which I connected the illustration with the cards of the board game and the sculptures where Sara represented 22 characters of folklore. These stories were created in order to strengthen the bonds of belonging to the community. My painting reflects the characters or their symbols which are connected with each other and to the world.

Thanks to this experience I learned how much the folklore of this region is lively, pulsant, various and full of meanings. I was impressed to see how much the folklore is still present in the deepest part of the people and it´s influencing their lives. From

an artistic point of view, for me it’s very special to see how art can make you feel involved, being understood and put together an entire community.

Atelier fashion design of

mAJA MöRCHEN

The work for MAF museum was inspired by traditional clothing. There is a lot of beautiful cross stitch embroidery that can be found in Romanian folklore. My goal was to firstly learn these techniques and traditional patterns and then combine the tradition with modern clothing. The first work was done at Petru Rares Highschool where students and teachers contributed a lot to the project. Another workshop was at Folcloristica using gamification as a first approach to crossstitching.

During the process, traditions were questioned (Does this pattern need to be black and red? - What if we embroider on different fabric?).

Young people learned traditional techniques and patterns and could also bring their own ideas to the table. Also I learned a lot.

A lesson from this work is definetly how much time this embroidery takes and how much work and care is put into traditional blouses. At the same time it can be a great tool for self expression and creativity. I hope that my work can be an example of combining traditions with modernity.

Folklore is a way of doing things that unites a community and brings beauty into this world, via dancing, music, clothes, food and more

Atelier Multimedia

of Wasan AbuSummaqah

For me Romanian folklore is really interesting for it’s rich in the stories and mythology, what amazes me the most is the community’s preservation and how they transfer it to all new generations. It was exciting to work on this topic and be involved with the people of the story.

To learn and to experience it while being in Romania, for me this is the best way to learn about a new culture and its folklore. And what we did is extraordinary because we touched a topic that for people might seem old but we created new and artistic products that speak to all generations.

We did workshops with children from different

schools, we created art and shared knowledge about folklore and photography.

I did collages with photos we took during Folcloristica Festival. Filmed two videos of my colleagues performing different ideas but all related to folklore. I feel excited about all the learning and experiencing of new things and ideas. I learned about Romanian folklore more, also how to work with different ages.

I would like to use the mythologies of Romanian folklore to create an art piece in the future. With MAF, I believe all students from different schools can benefit because we used a methodology that is more interesting for young ages.

“ “ Folklore means “to be uniquely different”

Atelier sculpture of folklore

of yavuzhan güMüS

The subject of these works is Romanian folklore and myths. I made many different designs and material changes during the process, the main reason for these was the suitability of the material to the subject and the ease of working in various workshops.

In these works, where we portray 22 characters from Romanian myths, each work has a different story. Romanian culture is very diverse and rich, so it is suitable for producing works in many different styles. This process was very enjoyable. We got to know the Romanian culture very well and at the same time, we reinvent these stories. I find Romanian folklore interesting and catchy, out of the ordinary, a great way to convey information to people about Romanian culture.

I will add these works to my portfolio. Thanks to the project, everyone can learn about Romanian culture and have the chance to review our investigations digitally.

“

Folklore is

“

the way of living for people from different regions.

From the first day of the workshop I started to work with the students and do some exercises how they can move, discover their bodies, how to bring them out of their comfort zone, how they can work as a group.

Day by day I could see the progress, I taught them how to play with balls, some of them played with two balls, some of them did it and played with three balls. I taught them some acrobatics movements.

Atelier circus and dance

of Ataota

I started to focus more about dance specifically contemporary dance and how I can mix it with the folklore’s dance and from here I got the idea of my video.

I cooperated with Chiara’s students to do this video. We took three days to build the chemistry between us, to work on the movements. We worked as a group.

Since I started to know about the Romanian folklore I really liked how much the Romanian people still stick to their folklore till now, not only the old people, but also the younger as well. Furthermore how the folklore is within everything in their life. This video is about how the folklore is within us even when we are walking in the street, in the supermarket, even when we’re playing, or with our friends. Folklore it doesn’t has specific moments, specific places, folklore is within us.

“ “ Folklore means artistic legacy.

Atelier theatre

of chiara gentili

My contribution to the alternative folklore museum begun by working with the students of Petru Rares school. Through theater, we have developed together a path that has allowed them to discover themselves, to get in touch with the deepest parts of themselves and to get out of their comfort zone. Thanks

to these inner connections created with oneself and with the group, it was then possible to identify a common root: folklore. This element is evident and pulsating in every local person, and for this reason we decided to create, with the help of the artist Ataota, a video that can express this history and culture.

Working at this museum, I also had the opportunity to create a performance inspired by the poem “Miorita”. The idea of my interpretation was born thanks to the precious collaboration with the dancer and actress Ataota and the musician Cihan. Together we have in fact developed a live performance that we have repeatedly brought

to life in different perspectives. The different energies of the public, allowed us to further enhance this idea and to give life to the “Papadie” project. “Papadie” is a video that depicts our final interpretation, not only the story that the poem carries in, but above all of what folklore brings with it: stories, people, emotions.

“ “

Folklore

is pulsating culture, traditions that live thanks to generations. A heritage of colors, sounds and smiles.

Atelier music

of Cihan Falez

I was dreaming of recording a music album of Romanian folk literature and traditional folk songs. After a long study and learning process, I wanted to contribute to poems and songs with a new form and breath. And I’m happy to be able to do that. Where are we going with this album? If I had to explain briefly… This path will sometimes lead us to the rooted poem “Miorița”. Sometimes to a sad song sung by an old woman. Sometimes we will smell the cheer-

ful roses of Moldova. Sometimes we will feel all this wonderful tradition in the voice of a small child. Sometimes we will see Romania in the voices of people from other countries of the world. Together we will look at love and our own reflections in a mirror. I hope that when our album reaches you, you will see the world and yourself in your heart.

Thank you Romania for all the beauty you have given us. This album is a little gift from me to you. Please accept. May it be answered in your soul.

Folklore music

Folklore music is like an old tree. You can see the soil at its roots. You can see the sky and the future in the tree branches. If you sit in the shade of this tree and listen for a while. I’m sure you’ll see your own soul.

“ “

Muzeul Alternativ de Folclor - MAF is a project developed by SUPER TINERI - ASIRYS

This initiative will take place between 2022 - 2028, involving over 100 international artists.

The European Union support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the E.U. cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Alternative Museum of Folklore - MAF is a project funded by European Union through European Solidarity Corps Programme. Fore more information about the project, check maf.supertineri.org and supertineri.org.