Foto: Annela Samuel
From 18 -24 August, 2024 EKA was running a summer school at NART in Narva entitled “EKA Summer School Narva – Cultural Transitions: From Matter to Meta”
This (service) design workshop explored transition spaces of urban Narva and used photography and mapping techniques as research tools and field work. Focusing on problem seeking and system thinking, the workshop combined artistic documentary work with analytical tools and critical discourse. The starting challenge was:
“How might the NART (Kreenholm director’s villa & Kreenholm community garden) and the new Kulgu area plot (aka Narva Venice area) and co-creative methods serve local community building, cultural & art mediation and multi-cultural exposure?”
From NART as our starting point we explored the NART ecosystem and its entangled communities, taking photographs, observing and participating in urban life. Concentrically we explored ever wider parts of Narva, searching for signs and places of transition and possible points of intervention.
The Summer School brought together Architecture, Design, Fine Art, Photography and Service Design students from India, Mexico, Peru, Turkey, Azerbaijan, USA, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Lithuania and Estonia. Throughout the week, the young people met many of Narva’s residents, explored Narva’s urban space and came up with tangible proposals to enrich life for local residents. The Summer School was hosted by professor Jörn Frenzel (EKA) and PhD student Annela Samuel (Tallinn University) and enriched through inputs by Johanna Rannula and Gleb Kuznetsov (NART), Narva’s city artist Denis Girenko, Nadežda Sassina (EKA student and local architect), Ivan Polynin (Head of research at the Integration Foundation) as well as local teacher Aarle Kuura.
The students came from the following universities:
Hochschule Wismar, UMPRUM Prague, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Vilnius Academy of Arts, Art Academy of Latvia and EKA.
Results ranged from Service Design (a card game for Russian/Estonian conversations) via architectural adaptive re-use to artistic animations and an on-site market intervention.
At the end of the week, the summer school participants invited everyone to the Narva Art Residence to visit and comment on their work and to share stories around a table!
The students:
Karina Dikan
Juan Antonio García Zermeño
Damla Arikan
Sawan Singh Shankar Singh
Ugur Güler
Deren Gürkan
Mahesh Kumar
Valenka Jaramillo Redhead
Shira Roth
Abigail Marcillo
Almira Kanbur
Anna Abdrashitova
Dunya Rasulzada
Maarja Karlson
Agata Kowalska
Marcela Gómez-Abundis
fb
