Arts Lab 5.0: Sena Yavuz, Turkey - Month 3

Wow, we ended the third month, which I really cannot believe. And now I’m here to write about the most exhausting but fulfilling month ever! 

The third month again started with the photo session for the catalog for the Cucuteni Museum. We went to the Cucuteni and hiked to the hill, the view was amazing. I made some face paintings with Cucuteni patterns for my friends. Since it was really cold, I had some hard times about it, but we spent a nice day there. Then we visited the student club in our neighborhood. Gisela, her colleagues, and the kids performed music for us, as well as my friends. And we met some students from the Moldova school, the school for the next art residency. One of the girls from that school sang some songs and it really touched my soul. I had been really curious about the connection that we will build between us so I was looking forward to meeting with them. 

Then the most exhausting week of the project came, the Moldova caravan! We left some of our friends in the house because of the visa issues and went to Moldova as 8 women in a car carrying a bunch of weird stuff, including ‘’the lady'' with a crown that I designed. To be honest, the border pass was a bit weird, somehow we were looking a bit suspicious. 8 young women from different nationalities with a lot of weird stuff trying to pass the border. I do not know. Somehow they let us go and we arrived in Moldova and visited an art school, and a museum about folklore and met with Damian, the painter.

After chilling a bit, we went to the youth center in Făleşti and tried to set up our exhibition while the teenagers were already in the place. I arranged my area, gathered and covered tables, and placed my artwork and the materials for the workshop while everyone was watching me. It did not feel professional at all and affected my mood. But in the end, it was okay, because the participants liked my workshop of painting on a fabric related to folklore. I think the idea of creating a collaborative artwork to exhibit in an exhibition kinda appeals to them. 

Anyway, then we went to the hotel and experienced a bunch of problems like cold weather, a smelly room, and a shower under the cold water. Of course, I got sick on the second day, which would be the last thing I would ask for this caravan, but it happened. It made everything worse. Because the first day was kinda the summary of the whole week. Starting a day with no breakfast, long driving times, no time for setting up, non-stop workshops, no time for the toilet, no time for arranging materials between the groups, no time to discover the city, pizza as the food of the day, experiencing different problems in each hotel and waking up to a similar day again. It was kind of a vicious circle which made us exhausted. Every single day, while trying to set up the things in schools I was feeling really overwhelmed and nervous. But in the end, all of them went really well, thanks to nice kids. 

We visited a lot of places in Moldova, from small villages to the capital city center, met a lot of people, made some friends, and tried nice foods. Even though it was an exhausting week full of travel and non-stop workshops under hard conditions, it was still an amazing experience. After this intense week, we turned back to Târgu Frumos and directly attended the Egyptian night organized by our friends. I had literally no energy even to move, the only thing that I wanted was to take a shower and sleep directly. But we had to continue socializing and trying to have fun. After the celebration I did not sleep, I literally fainted. 

We had one day off to take some rest and then we directly started to work on our personal artworks for the Cucuteni Museum. This time we had more time so I was able to do a lot more. Besides my personal artwork, I helped with the project of Carla and Dajana. We went to the hill to record a short film about the eight phases of the moon. I portrayed the goddess, the main character. We tried to reflect a lot of feelings and express ourselves with our moves. Everything was good, but there was only one problem: the cold. It was undoubtedly the coldest day of my life. I was the only actress who survived until the end of the shooting phase. Spending more than 7 hours on top of the hill, no coats, no gloves, no scarf. Oh, that was a really crazy day, I will never forget it! 

When it comes to my personal artwork, I created a huge sculpture out of Papier Mache of a woman goddess and I decorated it with stones that I collected from the Cucuteni area. In addition to that I made small goddess sculptures, a vase decorated with Cucuteni patterns, a bustier out of letters for a strong woman figure, and a belt full of Cucuteni patterns. I got the corner next to my room and I decorated the area with the big stones that we brought from Cucuteni then I placed the big sculptor on top of them. After covering the background with some fabric pieces, I put a furry blanket as a carpet to create a cozy corner which totally gives the ancient vibes. I placed the small sculptures, the vase, and fashion products on it. To be honest, surprisingly I am happy with the result this time. And I’m also really proud of all of my colleagues because they also did a really good job. We worked until the mornings for a whole week, but at the end it worthed. We received amazing feedback from guests, who honored us.

While all these things were happening we continued to go to villages for caravans, but this time with Cucuteni theme. We went to Ruginoasa, and I started to give a workshop about how to make small goddess figures out of clay. I saw that kids really like to play with the clay and explore. Because I saw that they really enjoyed it, I’m planning to give more workshops about clay in the future. There are a lot of things that happened this month that I did not mention in detail like, my lovely Aliye’s birthday party, a visit to Moldova school, a night in Iași, and a lot more. It was an intense, exhausting, satisfying period full of memories. Sometimes I find myself just stopping for a second and saying '' Oh, what a month!''

Sena Hanım Yavuz is from Turkey, and she is participating in a six-month volunteering program within Arts Lab 5.0, a project co-funded by the European Union through the European Solidarity Corps.