International Youth Exchange in Luxembourg within the programme of „Youth in Action” subsided by the European Comission

On November 03-11 2009 we participated in creative workshops organised by the partner association “Trisomie21”. We started our co-operation back in 2007 by inviting the group to Poland. And now the time came for us to visit Luxembourg. It was full of amazing experiences and it involved a lot of hard work. Classes were run by professional artists in several groups: fine arts, graffiti, photography, paper- mâché and theatre. On Sunday, which was the last day of the workshops, we held a performance in an art cafe in which we presented the results of all we had done. In the background of the theatre etudes there was a fine arts exhibition.
Before we left we had talked a lot about the new country, about all the work ahead of us, and discussed our flight itinerary. After we arrived we were immediately taken care of by the hosts. The workshops began the following day, and any language barriers were soon overcome. Simply, it turned out that artists can communicate in a universal language, and what is more we had Szymon with us – a Polish who lives there. Also, our therapists’ command of English was very helpful.
The results were amazing; photographs presenting actors in different roles, but in realistic  situations – receptionists in a luxury hotel, shop assistants in a jewellery store, hairdressers in a hair studio, drivers of a fancy car..., graffitists created on specially designed boards, visual artists decorated various devices and objects colourfully, and there was also a wonderful sculpture-installation made using paper- mâché technique. Alongside with all these works, everybody worked on a final performance. Ours was an etude “Marionettes”, the Luxembourgers prepared a few mini-scenes. The message was obvious and powerful: the disabled are not marionettes – they have their plans, emotions, feelings. The whole show took a form of a street theatre – everything took place among people sitting by cafe tables, gathering audience often became part of the performance. Of course, there was also a cultural side to it all; we had a cultural evening during which we presented our country and the theatre, we treated our hosts to regional dishes, we danced a polonaise. Our partners, in return, talked about Luxembourg and their traditions.

We had an opportunity to visit an art studio in Wiltz, a Polish parish in Luxembourg, we watched performances on a street theatre festival and we saw many charming spots of the city. It seems impossible almost to describe everything that happened during our stay. One is sure: we came back stronger and richer in experience from Luxembourg. And with a conviction that it is indeed worth to leave isolation and passivity far behind, take up new activities and get to know the world. The project was subsided by the European Commission within the programme of “Youth in Action”.

The project was also subsided by The Embassy of Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg in Warsaw. We give many thanks to the Consul of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Luxembourg, Ms Ewa Sufin-Jacquemart for her keen interest and the offered help; a canon Henryk Kruszewski from the Polish Catholic Mission in Luxembourg, and to all of those people thanks to whom we managed to realize the project. The pre-workshops and all the rehearsals were financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and Cracow Municipality – Department of Sport and Social Initiatives.

zapraszamy na strony:

www.mlodziez.org.pl

www.trisomie21.lu

view the photo gallery