6th Art Camp 2007

The Sixth International Art Camp Kosjeric was held from August 2-17.

The camp provided the opportunity for about 70 participants from Kosjeric and foreign countries to participate in a multimedia art colony with five workshops: music workshop; theatre workshop, wall painting (including murals); the contemporary arts, and a children’s theatre workshop. Each workshop had leaders who are specialists in their fields.

Much of the work was presented using multimedia. Most of the actual education and creative work, however, took place in the five specialized workshops. Workshops were lasted six hours per day over 10 working days. The four other days were used for travel, arrival, departure, excursions, and art and other presentations in Kosjeric and Belgrade.

Compose and Act: Participants were creating and performed musical compositions based on traditional music from their countries. This included folk and rock music from different regions and unique arrangements. Lyrics were written in various languages. The final performance was held in Kosjeric and Belgrade.

Theatre: After an introductory program regarding dancing techniques of Nonverbal theatre and The Theatre of Movements, participants have practiced expressing their creative ideas individually and in groups. Inspirations included folk examples of their cultures and their individual experience with differences and commons between cultures.

Wall painting: The wall painting workshop was using acrylics, graffiti, and other techniques to paint murals on selected wall in Kosjeric. This work was planned and conducted in teams. Each member contributed ideas, design, or vision, and participated in creation of the art work.

Contemporary art: Participants took part in visual art workshops working individually or in groups producing pieces of art that were engaging local citizens as an active audience and to help in the creative process. Techniques included traditional artistic media such as painting and sculpture, or interactive situations such as group work, street festivals, or other performances.

Children’s theatre: The special program for children was teaching drawing, painting, acting, and performing in a children’s play called The space story.

The program also included public international evenings, entertainment, and cultural events featuring music, art, culture, customs, food, and languages. The format for these events will maximize interaction and exchanges among the participating nationalities. Two workshops provided an opportunity for exchange of impressions among the visitors and their local hosts. These will take place on the first and last days of the camp. There were tours to cultural and historical monuments and sites in the town and vicinity.

Works were showcased daily at public programs, international evenings, street carnivals, musical evenings, etc. Selected participants, works, productions (music concert, children’s theatre) and performances were presented at community events in Kosjeric and Belgrade.

This project was initiated, conceived and implemented by activists of NGO K-Town Group, with the support of Centre for Pease and Democracy Development (within the project Everybody’s Song), Municipal Assembly of Kosjerić, Young Researchers of Serbia, Tourist Organization and the local media (Radio Kosjerić). Some 30 young artists from 13 countries (United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Greece, Slovakia, Russia, Denmark, India, Macedonia, Croatia, and Serbia) volunteered in the Camp. The creativity of guests prompted the same number of locals of Kosjerić, mostly the young ones, to join in the activities so that all of them together exchanged experiences and, while learning did many useful things for this town. For example, a beautiful mural was painted on a wall next to the river Skrapez in the centre of Kosjeric, the Kosjerić public (some 400 visitors) enjoyed in a rich music and drama programmed, and the children of Kosjerić had their first acting experience in a theatre show.