MEDIAȘ/ May 13 – 16, 2019

1. OPENING EVENT - Medias Synagogue

Summary video: Opening session, May 13, Medias Synagogue

2. EDUCATIONAL ART WORKSHOPS

SOLAR PHOTOGRAPHY ” Ephemeral studies” – Trainer Răzvan Anton/ “Stephen Ludwig Roth” Theoretical High School
The proposed workshop a diversity of visual practices related to memory and its starting points are the archive of the platform „Future of memory” and The House by the Synagogue. During the workshop, we will develop practices and ideas exchange, to compare the past and present testimonies of the local history, biographies and of cultural regional heritage. The workshop will start with a presentation of the Jewish communities’ places of Sighet (Synagogue, archive, library), followed by a debate on the materials documented in the „Future of memory” archive and a guided tour in the exhibition. During the workshop, we will process the photosensitive materials to print and reconstruct ephemeral narratives based on the biographies found in the testimonies and archives researched. The materials produced in this context will be presented during an open workshop. These will imply imprints and photographic albums, paintings, collages.

Summary video: Workshop sessions & presented results in high school

PERFORMANCE WORKSHOPS  ”Freedom of Memory” - Trainers: Lala Misosniky & Ana-Maria Irimia/ ”National Gas School” Technological High School
This workshop proposes the creation of a collective manifest regarding the right to freedom and points the importance of an articulated point of view in the common language of teenagers, the importance of memory and to the way we can learn from looking into the past through art. We will connect to the personal memory, we will discover the collective memory and through performative exercises and video creation we will create a common archive of histories, emotions and feelings to be able to define our speech regarding freedom, to understand its importance day by day. The final point of the workshop consists in creating 4 short-films in teams by 5 participants to reflect the unicity of personal memory – this giving the chance of a constructive dialogue based on empathy and reciprocity. Accepting diversity, we can understand better what it means the right to freedom.

Videos: Projects made by participants at the workshop

Summary video: Workshop sessions & presented results in high school

MULTIMEDIA WORKSHOP "Performing Resistance” - Trainer Olga Ștefan & Gazdag Erzsébet/ ”Axente Sever” Theoretical High School
How can we talk about resistance in the actual context when xenophobia has, again, become widespread at social/political level and, in some cases, even legal? Which populations are vulnerable and how can we support them? Which forms of resistance are suitable? How can we participate in them? Our starting point for this workshop is the antifascist resistance struggle and the ways of surviving during the Second World War. Using real examples from history and correlating documents from The Future of Memory archive with present, we will focus on how the body can be the carrier of these concepts. We will learn about the past, about how even in the worst conditions people have resisted and how we can use the lessons of the past to create a better society. Participants will be asked to research their own stories, their family and theirs, as inspiration for developing projects made by students. Teams of 2 students will work together. Studying the source material (albums, links, etc.). We can use different forms of art, answering this way to all the addressed topics. Making the personal projects and presenting them in schools.

Summary video: Workshop sessions & presented results in high school

3. EVENT OF PRESENTATION OF RESULTS FROM WORKSHOPS IN THREE HIGH SCHOOLS / May 16, 2019

4. FILM PROJECTION AND DEBATE / May 16, 2019, 18.00, House next to the Synagogue Mediaș (43rd Mihail Kogălniceanu st., Mediaș)
National preview - short version (20 minutes) of the documentary film ”Gestures of Resistance” 2019, created by Olga Ştefan (Romania) with the help of Post Bellum ops (Czech Republic) and Bratislava Policy Institute (Slovakia). The projection will be followed by a public debate.
link

Summary video: Public Event, May 16, Medias Synagogue