In 2020, we planned several practical workshops for children and adults. However, due to the Covid 19 pandemic, they were postponed indefinitely. When designers and artists could not organize cultural events and workshops, we visited several inspiring studios at least with our camera. Under strict measures, Janko, a primary school student, recorded. Children are affected by a pandemic situation and are exposed to many threats, the impact of which we will discover only in the future. According to UNICEF, approximately 1.5 billion children worldwide do not attend school or have not attended school for a long time due to strict quarantine measures.

New technologies help them learn and stay connected. However, unlike adults, children are at a stage of their lives during which the consequences of the crisis are much more significant. Distance education has a much greater impact on a child than working from home to an adult (although both run for the same length of time). Many children find it difficult to cope with the inability to meet their loved ones and friends and are uncertain about the future. Through symbolic cooperation with a children’s cameraman, we want to point out the importance of paying attention to the balanced development of children in every situation and also their leadership to craft skills, in addition to the acquisition of digital literacy.

Nikola Čemanová

Nikola Čemanová is engaged in residential projects and production at the Slovak National Gallery, she leads ceramics courses in a workshop in Nová Cvernovka and in her work she deals with the topics of body and matter. Her world is ceramics, and in the video you will learn, among other things, how to find out whether the clay you find on the meadow is suitable for processing or not.

People on Earth

Illah van Oijen and Nina Marčeková work in Nová Cvernovka in a studio called People on Earth. They are engaged in the redesign of worn clothing, the upcycling of fabrics, and they also make clothing or accessories from seemingly unbearable materials. We talked about new collaborations, pandemic dynamics and fresh plans, as well as Jana Tornado’s new florist’s shop. “We are free, we do not have our hands tied to mass production or ready-made standards, and therefore we can focus on local projects on sustainability outside the fashion apparatus. We have a studio in Nová Cvernovka, which guarantees daily stimuli on how to save the planet Earth. ”

Bagbet

Bagbet is a design studio that focuses on the processing of textile waste. The priority is to be considerate of nature. In their work, they try to breathe new life into things and thus bring ecology into everyday life. About textile stories during the daily bustle of Šancová street…
http://www.bagbet.sk/sk/home/

KundyCrew

The Schaubmar Mill (SNG) has the ambition to regularly organize and provide facilities for residencies of artists and designers. The aim is that visitors can not only “look” at the art in the mill, but also experience and come into contact with the process and results of artistic creation. Kundy Crew’s creative group was formed in 2010 as an informal group of angry girls who decided to take their grandmothers’ last fun and started embroidering. In their embroidery, they deal with feminist, anti-fascist, misanthropic, serious, ridiculous, current and other topics. From left: Nina, Eva, outside the picture Iva, Gabika.

At the same time, during our visit, a closed exhibition was installed in the premises of the Schaubmar Mill. The exhibition Group Therapy would like (not coincidentally, in Pezinok-Cajla – a city/place with a strong reputation of psychiatry) to capture the growing anxiety and escaping feeling of joy, to which more and more artists are responding today. In one place, in the charismatic space of the old mill, we concentrate art works that reflect participatory turn and community ethos, as we have experienced them in the art  of recent decades.

Márta Juhász

Márta Juhász built her name mainly by creating jewelry from various materials. Working with aluminum, she likes to experiment and look for new techniques for processing metals and plastics. She is happy when she can give new meaning to old things. During our informal visit to the studio during the pandemic, we talked about plans for further activities and how and why Márta started working with precious metals such as gold and silver.

Saša Miklášová – SAShE

SAShE has been synonymous with handicrafts in Slovakia for more than 11 years, bringing together authors of professional and amateur products from jewelry, clothing, cosmetics, things for children and households to works of art, as well as materials for production. In addition to the online community, SAShE, in cooperation with Stará Tržnica, organizes a live SAShE event twice a year, where visitors have the opportunity to see the best brands that have grown up at SAShE. Saša and her husband Juraj have been leading the project since its establishment and they still enjoy monitoring and supporting the growth of Slovak brands and creating a dignified, functional and modern online space for the sale of their work.

We talked about the principles of sustainability, which definitely include manual labor, local production, waste minimization, the most possible self-sufficiency of households and the ability to repair consumer products. You will find out what the “zero waste” tab means, how many creators we have in Slovakia and how they are doing and why it is good to create space for the diversity of the craft. The handmade community in the Slovak Republic is indeed even wider than the SAShE portal itself, which is really good for society and the planet. We believe that the support of amateur creativity and handicrafts is not in competition with the work of professional designers and artists; on the contrary, the company is moving towards a better appreciation of sophisticated craft brands.

Daniela Krajčová

Daniela Krajčová graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, at the Department of Intermedia and Multimedia under the guidance of Anna Daučíková and the Academy of Performing Arts in the field of animation. She received her doctoral degree at the VŠVU with a thesis on Memories of the Jewish Community in the form of hand animation.

We talk about production and life with children.

Martina Mareková Kuipers – Fashion Revolution Slovakia

We introduced the coordinator of the movement in Slovakia at the first Nasuti festival in 2018. Fashion Revolution is the world’s largest activist organization in the field of fashion. It organizes campaigns and activities with the aim of connecting communities, strengthening the space for unheard and marginalized voices. The regular Fashion Revolution Week event in 2021 was marked by the hashtag #IFixedMyClothes. The intention of local activities is to highlight the repair of clothing and return handicrafts to our normal lives. Thanks to the upcycling and repair of clothing, each of us can eliminate textile waste, thus reducing the burden on the environment. “The wish of Fashion Revolution in Slovakia is to strengthen the community of people who are engaged in handicrafts and can interconnect and inspire each other.”