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Last week I had the honour to join the open discussion "VisualizArte" about women artists in the IES María Telo (Los Corrales de Buelna, Spain). This secondary school was back in time the place where I was a student, from where I hold meaningful memories and inspiration from various professors who taught me how to keep being curious, feeding with learning, no matter how old you are. This open discussion was led by María Consuelo Toledo Cañamero with the invitation of also Isabel Victorino, local artist and Andrea Galaxina art historian both involved in feminist approaches. Despite that I was present virtually it was very special as I believe this content is very relevant for growing as humans, it is a reality that being a woman and artist is still a complex ground to work from while defending the need to keep giving voice to women whom work has been shadowed by the male driven art system we still face and all its consecuences. Thanks to all for your contributions and specially to Chelo for her work to organise this space. 
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On the 13th of March at 7pm I participated in the discussion board "Gerrarik Ez! An image of war from the point of view of victims, refugees and human rights" that took place in Vitoria (Basque Country) although I presented from Kyiv (Ukraine) where I am currently. Thanks so much for the invitation, specially to Txaro Arrazola, to Abdul Kader and Juan Ibarrondo and the active participation of the audience.  Today 13th of March at 7pm I am participating in the discussion board "Gerrarik Ez! An image of war from the point of view of victims, refugees and human rights". This participation will be virtual as I will be speaking from Kyiv (Ukraine), during this small presentation I will share some connections to the context of what is happening in Ukraine with some reflections from personal experience that takes the focus on people. In addition I will address briefly some work about art and healing in this context. This discussion is part of a series of activities organised by Espazioa with the participation of more than a hundred cultural workers.   During the last ten days I have been leading the project "Germinating Futures: Collaborative art and care for eco-social (re)balance” with Lernlabor in Lutter Am Barenberge. I would like to share some insights from the very rich process. Thanks so much to Lernlabor and all partner organisations, also the amazing participants who too part in this collective journey.  "The magical surroundings of Lutter Castle provided the backdrop for a programme of collaborative methods and practices of care led by the artist Seila Fernández Arconada stimulating reflections on nature, eco-social crisis, resilience, sustainability, climate change and other pressing topics. “Germinating Futures”, our latest international training course, enabled participants to apply artistic methods and collaborative practices as practical tools for engaging with eco-social (re)balance, encouraging them to move between the experimental and experiential to germinate interactions with other kinds of knowledge, narratives, and species, and thus generating an inclusive and thoughtful dialogue to explore alternative forms of being together with artistic expressions as our vehicle. The project was based on a number of presentations and activities named as artistic experiments including seeds creation, germinating stories; collaborative painting, sensorial photography; play as creation, collective drawing and as result of this journey some collaborative projects between participants were presented in a final exhibition. We are grateful to all involved for their engagement, interaction and connection. A big thanks to our partners Asociación Cultural La Ortiga Collectiva, Logos Polska, Fundatia Pentru Tineret Buzau, Volonterski Centrar Vojvodine, for preparing and sending such motivated participants. The project “Germinating Futures: Collaborative art and care for eco-social (re)balance” is co-funded by the European Union." Lernlabor             
     “Transcending uncertainties: Art healing for uprooting times” was the latest chapter of our Youth Participation project, Engagement Academy. Hosted in the beautiful @großer garten, this workshop created a safe space for participants to express themselves through exploring what an art process is - and how we can use this to foster healing processes. Over four days, we experimented with different art tools to explore emotions and inner awareness, and learning how to engage with multidisciplinary art processes in both theory and practice. A particular focus was placed on the importance of accompanying such processes with the necessary respect and care, with the awareness that exploring memories and experiences can also trigger trauma or dislocation.
This workshop was led by @Seila Fernández Arconada, who is an experienced multidisciplinary artist and researcher with an extensive international experience in art projects including work with displaced people and places in conflict. Engagement Academy is a one-year long-term project co-funded by European Union and @jfe under youth participation program. The project is created and implemented by Lernlabor and our partners Logos in Poznan. The aim of Engagement Academy is is to provide participants with the skills, tools, and support structures to empower their civil society engagement and strengthen their participation in democratic life.  "Transcending uncertainties : Art healing for uprooting times" begins today for the next 5 days of immersive collective experience. The aim of this training course is to create a safe space where participants will be able to express themselves exploring what an art process is. We will use different art tools to explore emotions and inner awareness taking care of creating a peaceful and inclusive atmosphere. During the time together we will learn how to deal with such multidisciplinary art processes as well as accompanying from respect and care any vulnerabilities that memories or experiences could bring including trauma or dislocation. The experience will be following grounded theory about art practice as therapy as well as collaborative transdisciplinary processes. This project will be led by Seila Fernández Arconada, who is an experienced multidisciplinary artist and researcher with an extensive international experience in art projects including work with displaced people and places in conflict. Transcending Uncertainties is framed in the year programme Engagement Academy produced by Lernlabor.
These days I am enrolling Haumea Ecoversity based in Ireland. The course exploring the Earth Charter is so far very interesting and inspiring for my own practice as we are analising key values represented in this oficial document originated in 1987. These values we consider them vital to a shift on the ecosocial crisis we are living. The Earth Charter is an international declaration of fundamental values and principles considered useful by its supporters for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century. Created by a global consultation process, and endorsed by organizations representing millions of people, the Charter "seeks to inspire in all peoples a sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of the human family, the greater community of life, and future generations." Values education is now seen as fundamental to guide: individuals’ creative work, teaching, curating; cultural institutions' sustainability communications, programming or education outreach; to foster inclusive community dialogue for ecosystem restoration endeavours; and to deepen sustainability and social justice understanding for those working in science, law, industry, politics, faith communities or business.  A través de LA ORTIGA COLECTIVA se presenta la siguiente CONVOCATORIA ABIERTA Abrimos convocatoria a personas, preferiblemente del entorno rural de Cantabria, interesadas en participar en el proyecto Germinating Futures: Collaborative Art and Care for eco-social (re)balance. Se trata de un proyecto de formación enmarcado en el proyecto Erasmus+ promovido por la organización alemana Lernlabor y dirigido por la artista Seila Fernández Arconada. La Ortiga Colectiva es una de las organizaciones colaboradoras que se encargará de seleccionar participantes para el proyecto Germinating Futures junto a otras organizaciones de Serbia, Rumanía, Alemania y Polonia. ¿EN QUÉ CONSISTE EL PROYECTO?Este proyecto de formación busca generar un diálogo inclusivo y reflexivo para explorar formas alternativas de ser en colectivo mientras imaginamos posibles escenarios futuros a través de expresiones artísticas. El objetivo de este espacio creativo es utilizar métodos artísticos colaborativos y prácticas de cuidados para inspirar reflexiones sobre la naturaleza, la crisis ecosocial, la resiliencia, la sostenibilidad y el cambio climático, entre otros. Durante el encuentro, crearemos juntos entre lo experimental y lo experiencial para germinar interacciones con otros tipos de conocimiento, otras narrativas y otras especies. El taller será facilitado por Seila Fernández Arconada, experimentada artista multidisciplinar e investigadora con una amplia experiencia internacional en proyectos transdisciplinares a partir de procesos participativos y colaborativos en diferentes países. ¿DÓNDE Y CUÁNDO? El taller tendrá lugar en Lutter Am Barenberge (Alemania) del 22 de febrero de 2023 al 3 de marzo de 2023. ¿QUIÉN PUEDE PARTICIPAR? Seleccionaremos a tres participantes que serán becados para participar en el taller. Para ello es imprescindible estar interesado/a en la temática, así como tener un buen nivel de inglés y disponibilidad en las fechas indicadas. Son bienvenidas personas de todas las edades a partir de 18 años. Para participar no se requiere experiencia previa o tener un currículum vinculado al arte. ¿CÓMO PUEDO PARTICIPAR? Inscribiéndote en el formulario antes del 2 de febrero de 2023. TODA LA INFORMACIÓN EN EL SIGUIENTE ENLACE: https://laortigacolectiva.net/germinating-futures/ “Germinating Futures: Collaborative Art and Care for eco-social (re)balance”. STAFF MOBILITY TRAINNING COURSE LED BY SEILA FERNÁNDEZ ARCONADA The aim of this creative space is to use artistic collaborative methods and practices of care to stimulate reflections on nature, eco-social crisis, resilience, sustainability and climate change, among others. During the activity, we will create together moving between the experimental and the experiencial to germinate interactions with other kinds of knowledge, other narratives and other species. This project seeks to generate an inclusive and thoughtful dialogue to explore alternative forms of being together while envisioning future scenarios with artistic expressions as our vehicle. This workshop will be led by Seila Fernández Arconada, who is an experienced multidisciplinary artist and researcher with an extensive international portfolio in participatory and collaborative transdisciplinary projects. This 10 days staff mobility will enable participants to apply artistic experiments and artistic methods and collaborative practices as practical tools for engaging with the theme of eco-social (re)balance. This Erasmus + project is produced by Lernlabor. Participant countries are Spain, Serbia, Romania, Germany and Poland. More information about next stages soon! . |
