Arts Conversations in Brezoi: MyVillages at TERRRA
The Brezoi Demo Case is excited to announce that MyVillages / The Rural School of Economics will be working with the Brezoi Democase Team as contracted artists on the Art Conversations Work Package, and are currently developing an Art Plan. MyVillages first visited Brezoi in 2012, and the Brezoi team looks forward to continuing this collaboration and seeing what emerges from it.
Schoolchildren exploring the meadow at TERRRA from a cow’s perspective.
In early June, the Brezoi Democase Team hosted a week of workshops with MyVillages/ Rural School of Economics, which helped deepen our understanding of community needs and expectations, as well as the role Art Conversations can play in addressing them. We were fortunate to welcome Indra Gleizde, Wapke Feenstra, Ioana Lupașcu, and Lea Novi to Brezoi for a week of shared learning, conversations, and exchange. The schedule included workshops, visits to local stakeholders, shared meals, and walks through the area. We spent time in Măriuca Onica’s vegetable garden and orchard camping, visited Ina & Florin’s orchard, pond, and existing NBS/NEB examples, and connected with local art practices—with Gigi Onica sharing her textile collection, and exchanging artistic approaches with painter Angela Tomaselli.
Observation drawings from the plein air workshop led by Wapke Feenstra.
As part of the visit, Wapke Feenstra led an Art Conversation in the form of a plein air workshop with students from Liceul Teoretic “Gheorghe Surdu” and their teachers, Diana Predușel and Luiza Maria Botă, alongside Vice Mayor Alin Șuldac, representing our partners at Brezoi City Hall. Structured around “releasing your inner cow”, the workshop used the presence of cows in Brezoi’s landscape to attune our attention to the orchard meadows on the TERRRA site, which in July, were at their peak height. Participants recalled past encounters with cows while engaging with the meadow plant through a plein air drawing exercise and discussion about their observations of biodiversity and memories associated with the meadow’s plants. A warm thank you to Wapke for leading this inspiring workshop, and to everyone who joined in.
The MyVillages and TERRRA teams visiting local stakeholders, including Mariuca Onica’s ecocamping site.
Author of the text and pictures by Maria Alexandrescue, Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée.
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