On Tuesday the 30 November I participated in the VAUK Media Training organized by Thinking Practice. I was invited on behalf of AIR and was the only practicing artist in the group. Because of the weather there was only 8 of us who managed to get there plus the three media, Charles, Claire and Dominic. It was a small group but nice. This was a very tough, intense but very interesting day. We started at 9.30, with introductions and each one of us explaining what we would like to gain from the day, and finished at 5.30.
They teached us and explain how we should handle the press, what we should say and how we say it, things that we should be considerate about; how to prepare for the interview; how to dress….
This included giving direct interviews to someone holding a microphone in your face, interviews on the telephone, Direct Television and Radio interviews.
Finally we managed to arrange the meeting with the Romany community in Kent on the 2nd of December but due to the weather had to be cancelled again; we are trying to reschedule the meeting for this Friday the 10th or following week Friday the 17th, fingers crossed don’t snow again.
Due to the weather I have been having problems getting the fish skins delivered from Northumberland, the factory is hardly working and staffs are still snowed down. I really hope I get the skins delivered before Christmas….
I did days teaching at City college Brighton yesterday and it was very enjoyable. I gave lecture about my work first and then did three one to one tutorials with third year students.
I am driving to Bristol tomorrow afternoon for a Thursday morning meeting at Ashton park and going back to St Bede’s Catholic college to photograph my work.
I was shortlisted and attended an interview on the 24th November at Pier a Terre restaurant. Last week I was notified that the Interview panel were very impressed by my presentation and have selected me as the first Artist in Restaurant. This was a unanimous decision, backed by Shane Osborn, the head chef, who very much welcomed me to his kitchen. This is such an exciting news and an amazing opportunity to be the artist-in-residency at a 2michellin star restaurant, to work with the chefs, see, experience and contribute to the life of a kitchen and together develop ideas for new works.
The announcement was made nationally on the 3rd of December and various writings have been published in the Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/the-diary-english-national-ballet-jasper-joffe-mark-wahlberg-stephen-hawking-2149537.html
The Evening Standard, ArtReview http://www.artreview.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=elpida+hadzi-vasileva
On Monday morning, the 15th my father and me delivered the work to Public Room Gallery in Skopje where the space was ready for install. We started by placing and organising the tiles on the floor and after long and careful measuring of the walls and working out the spacing, we started to install the work, which took 2 ½ days. Everything was ready except the catalogues. The company that was printing the catalogues in Macedonia did them incorrect and made a full mess of the print. They delivered the catalogues very last minute on Thursday morning and we didn’t had the time to reprint or find someone else to do the job… On the opening, which was very embarrassing for me, we had to make an announcement that the catalogues have been badly/wrongly printed and that we are going to reprint them back in the UK!
But I have to say that the opening was a great success, there was so many visitors came to the opening that the gallery was to small to accommodate everyone that arrived, so many people where queuing outside to come in! Ana Frangovska, curator at the National Gallery of Macedonia and the Mayor of Kavadarci (my city) Mr Aleksandar Panov opened the exhibition. The amazing thing was that the Mayor of my city organised a bus from Kavadarci to Skopje to help and bring all the interested people.
For me this was an incredible evening, it was my first solo exhibition in my country and many friends and family came to see it. Also I had brilliant coverage in the papers and interviews with two different TV stations.
After the opening I had a little rest and enjoyed the time spend with my family before returning back to the UK on the 22nd of November.
In September I when to Macedonia to start the project, I placed the skins into chemicals which was then, for the next 10 weeks, cared by my mother and father. We also found a local company that cut and prepared the tiles for the work and this was delivered and ready for my return.
After arrival to Macedonia the following 5 days I worked in my studio, which is an amazing space on the third floor of my parents house that was created for me 19 years a go before I left, but now most of the time sits empty and is hardly being used…. We organised ourselves and worked as a team. My mother and me made the tiles, by carefully stretching the wet skins onto the black tiles; this was then carried by my father and placed on the covered floor to dry. My sister cooked our dinners and looked after all of us. It was a great team and without they help I wouldn’t have been able to finish the work. We made approximately 100-150 tiles per day, in total we made 600 tiles of 20cm x 20cm.
On the 4th in the morning I had to catch the National Express at 5.45am to Heathrow airport where Sally Sheiman and myself flow to Zagreb to the ECA (European Council of Artist) yearly conference called Art Funding – Artistic freedom.
The event started at 19.30 on the 5th with an opening reception at the Museum of Contemporary Arts, which is an incredible new building.
The conference opened on the 6th with an address by Silvije Petranovic the president of the Croatian Freelance Artist Association.
First speaker Zarko Paic, a philosopher from Croatia, spoke about ‘The Post Liberal Conditions – mapping the arts as freedom in unfinished European cultural space’. Second speaker was Louise Walsh, a sculptor from Ireland, she spoke about her experiences in public art, ‘Expectation| Imagination’. Third speaker, Sibila Petlevski an author and president of PEN. Her topic was ‘Free-Expression Policies’ with the subtitle: Cultural Policies, Cultural Branding & Cultural Jamming. Fourth speaker was Marta Smolikova, director of Pro Culture from the Czech Republic. Marta spoke about ‘What is the Role of the Sponsor?’ and the relationship of partnerships and funding in an open society. The fifth speaker was Christian Brandt, an author from Finland, great sense of humour, needed to break the atmosphere at the time…. His topic was ‘Funding Principles & Criteria and their affects on art’. The sixth speaker was Patricia Fernandez-Mazarabbroz, working at the Ministry of Culture in Spain. She spoke regarding ‘Intellectual Property Rights’, about the arts protection at an international level – Europe’s legal framework.
We had a pleasant surprise and the final speaker was the President of the Republic of Croatia Mr Ivo Josipovic. He is a composer recently elected President. He spoke eloquently about the importance of Art, Culture and Society.
The morning of the 8th Sally and me when to the Airport in Zagreb and Sally when back to London and I continued my trip to Skopje, where I had to create new work for an exhibition that opened on the 18th of November 2010. I was collected and met by my sister and we drove back to my parents. The same afternoon with the help of my family we started to plan the next few days, which were long and hard work.
