EUROPEAN CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT DIFFERENT COLOURS, SIMILAR PATTERN
HELSINKI–OSTRAVA • 2019
ERASMUS+
Ostrava (CZ)–Helsinki (FIN) 2019
waldorfská Ostrav vá organizace
STŘEDNÍ ODBORNÁ ŠKOLA WALDORFSKÁ OSTRAVA, příspěvková organizace Ludovíta' Štúra 1085/8 708 00 Ostrava-Poruba Czech Republic www.soswaldorfostrava.cz
HELSINGIN RUDOLF STEINER - KOULU Lehtikuusentie 6 00270 Helsinki Finland www.rudolfsteinerkoulu.fi CONTENT
1. Foreword ...... 3
2. Description of the project ...... 4
3. Architecture ...... 6
4. Performing arts ...... 10
5. Life in Finland and Czech republic...... 12 FOREWORD
Our way of life flourishes in different environment naturally, culturally and socially. To consciously recognise the qualities of our lives we need to face and appreciate the differences as well as the similarities in the life of people, who are embedded in different environment. When we do so, we can develop more understanding of the environment and empathy for the other people's situation in general, which is the first step to overcome the prejudices.
To achieve this we need to experience and study the culture of the partner country, express and mediate our own culture to our partners. The most rewarding way is to work together and to experience everyday life by the stay in the families and by the shared free time life. This is what was offered to the participants and what the majority of them has widely used and appreciated. For many of them this was therefor really essential life experience.
The natural and social landscapes of the participating schools offered a lot of space for different approaches and outcomes, because there are many differences (industrial x cultural, seaside x inland, regional centre x capital), as well as many similarities (urbanistic changes influencing nature and culture in modern times).
And so the project fulfilled its aims for participants as well as for the schools and public as you can see in this bulletin.
3 DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT
The main objective of the project was to encourage the active citizenship in the students through multidisciplinary artistic approach and to improve their language skills. Each of the students had a possibility to deeply connect him/herself with the subject of the project in a way appropriate for him, to use, show and document his/her best abilities and competencies and this way to be more interested and involved in different activities of the project.
To achieve this, participating students took their own part in the process - from the planning and choosing the themes till the evaluation. On this base they built relationship and out of it real understanding of the project objectives.
Project therefore supported active development of various abilities and competencies and their evaluation, so the participants could recognise and record their potencials and this way be prepared to actively step into the world.
The main content of the project was to experience and study the culture of the partner country and express and mediate their own culture to the partners.
The natural and social landscapes of the participating schools have many differences (industrial x cultural, seaside x inland, regional centre x capital), but they have similarities as well (urbanistic changes influencing nature and culture in modern times), so there was a lot of space for different approaches and outcomes.
4 THE PROJECT IN DETAIL
The students worked generally in joined (from both schools) groups, where each small combined group had a specific task. There were two main fields to choose from, which were combined at the end to one shared result: a) visual art and architecture and it’s relation to the cultural expression of each nation b) performing art in connection with the cultural expression of each nation.
The groups first searched the locations, objects and materials to work with, then did the observation, followed by the presentation. a) architecture group first found interesting objects of architecture, typical monuments and pieces of visual art of the countries, observed it and it’s connection to the cultural environment, gather the material and prepare the presentation of the objects (picture, plan, drawing, presentations). b) performing arts group first searched for the typical folk, and modern art expressions (music, dance, drama), then they prepared the performance on the base of the chosen pieces of art, presented it to the public and document it.
The participants showed at the end of the project the results of their formal, non-formal and informal learning, development of their soft and hard competencies in a holistic way through the recorded self-reflection in European portfolio certificate and Europass.
5 ARCHITECTURE HELSINKI
General aims were to gain knowledge about Finnish architecture and especially contemporary architecture. The theme was lingering aroud the minimalistic and aesthetic lines distinctive in contemporary Finnish architecture are ubiquitous in the country’s public and residential buildings. As a result of the processes the students had a personal holistic experience of various contemporary spaces such as a makers space, a library and in general the city planning and infrastructure. The students made excursions to architectural spaces related to certain functions as religion, different cultural aspects e.g. soundscape and music (movie theatre, music house).
Finland is well known from it’s environmentally aware architecture. A striking example of new Finnish architecture is the Helsinki Central Library which is getting international praise. This library named Oodi (Finnish for „ode“) opened December 5, 2018. In these times of global warming and climate change there is a growing need to learn about sustainable design. Wood is related to sustainability, but for Finns, it’s also related to the national identity and the central library is a pioneer project selected by the Finnish government in celebration of the centennial of Finland’s independence 2017. The library’s façade from Finnish spruce and the building is extremely energy efficient. During the Erasmus project it was clearly seen that the ecological, local and energy efficient materials are increasingly guiding designing. Exchange projects attractions and visited places of interest gave a wide perspective to the architecture starting from Alvar Aalto, regarded as the most influential architect of modern Finland, to the traditional (Uspenski Cathedral) and contemporary churches (Rock Church) and various cultural spaces. As a sub- theme there was the multiculturalism and globalisation that play a vital role in welcoming diversity also in architecture.
6 FROM STUDENT’S BLOG
Visit in Oodi Library
April 8, 2019 Lukas Hlozanka
On Monday 8th April we visited this nice piece of Architecture. The library was opened in 2018 (in December). From December 2018 to April 2019 is the 5 months in servis. Durong these 5 months was in Oodi more than 1 milion peoples. That great number! The library laing in Töölönlahti district in Helsinki. The Oodi is consists of 3 grounds: In the first of them is reception and small chill zone. The second one is an IT ground. You can try there 3D printings, some new game consols, PC programs, games and systems, and more… The third ground is the main. There is the mail library, with more than 1 milion books and big chill and coffee zone for everyone people. For me the visit in library was amazing, because in Ostrava we have only few „small“ libraries around to our city. In these we havent any chill zone, coffee only lending books. I thing that this system of library and spending free time is good for every country or city, so the people of Helsinki can be happy for this building. For me it was amazing afternoon in Oodi…
Senses in Oodi
April 8, 2019 Lukas Hlozanka
If i must choose two, for me, main senses which i had in Oodi, i choose seeing and touching. Seeing i choose because every time which im here. I see setisfied, friendly and happy peoples. This environment have some trait, tat everyone Peoples which are sad, here are happy, without problems. About touching. All there is made for peoples of Helsinki. All is making from smooth, nice touching material in nice colours, which must make people better. I thing that is the reason to build this building, from people for people, to better feelings in their life...
7 Amos Rex Museum
April 13, 2019 Kristofova_Anna
On April 12th, we were at the Amos Rex Museum, where we had the privilege of getting to know the art of several excellent artists. Amos Rex is different from other museums because it is underground. Outdoor and indoor space connect the glass sheets in the ceiling.
Most interesting was for me the afloat cuboid in the middle of the hall because I haven’t seen anything like that yet.
Kiasma and Music house
April 9, 2019 Eliška Čípová
Today at 9th of April we have workshop. We made design on bag. After we visited 2 building. They are side by side. The first was Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum. It’s at the centrum and it’s very interesting building. You see many objects as dovetail. We had guide and She told us information of the building and expositions. Some expositions was beautiful, but some expositions wasn’t goot for me. The second building was Music house. Here is some of concert halls, where plays symphony orchestra. The building has very good acoustics. People go here at the concert. We will go tomorrow.
The Alvar Aalto house museum
April 11, 2019 cloudiedoodie
We visited the Alvar Aalto home museum today which is in Munkkiniemi, Helsinki. From the outside it looked like an old but modern-styled house. When you walk inside the first impression is that it is a well-kept design house. Interestingly, you couldn’t touch the furniture and the walls in the house because they had to be kept in good condition for the future. They were also important and expensive historical artifacts. The house was nice and homely. It was loyal to the style of the 30’s in Finland so it also seemed very familiar to the Finns because the style is still alive in our relatives houses and some apartment complexes. The furniture and art was mostly original to the house or replaced by similiar ones from the museums, because the Aalto family had owned it privately before the Aalto foundation had bought it from them to display it as a museum.
– Salka and Nicole
8 ARCHITECTURE OSTRAVA
We were visited by our Finnish friends between 23rd September and 2nd October 2019.
The work we did in both places was characterized by different facilities; however, the common topics were architecture and ornament.
The Czech group put emphasis on folk traditions, still well-preserved for example in Mr. Jurkovič's work, some of which can be found relatively close to Ostrava. Thanks to the Czech historical background and the climate, we can find here more architectural sights from different periods. This fact enables us to sufficiently understand the purpose of the buildings. We visited Pustevny, Radhošť and the Wallachian Open-Air Museum in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm. The following day we went to the historical centre of Olomouc. One of the most important tasks was to observe interesting architectural objects and complexes. Students took photos and made drawings, thanks to which they gained the needed knowledge. We also visited the Plato Gallery and took part in a workshop to mark the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus Art School.
At school, the students worked on a group project, a drawing of a communal house, where they could discuss different issues regarding housing and lifestyle. They also worked with clay. At first, they learnt how to model convex-concave shapes. Later, they were taught how to model an architectural object according to their own design. During both stays, the students collected materials which were later used to create a linocut template depicting folk ornaments. The template was made in two designs, a negative and positive image.
During the whole project, there was a new underlying aspect of architecture, which can be defined as „Architecture with Empathy“. It means that the building respects the needs of its residents or users. In both countries, we visited different sacred, cultural and factory buildings. The students themselves could tell the difference in their functionality and the feeling of being welcome depending on the time when they were built.
The students had a great influence over the visual aspect as well the contents of the „news coverage“ during the whole project. They were encouraged to take their own initiative using both traditional and modern technologies.
9 PERFORMING ARTS OSTRAVA
The first phase of the Erasmus project took place at the Waldorf Secondary Vocational School in Ostrava from March 23, 2019 to October 2, 2019. Selected students who participated in the project, both Finnish and domestic, worked on the so-called Performing art. It means a performance which integrates various types of art. Music, movement and to some extent also scenographic. The performance is based on the experience of the given image, which the performer tries to convey without words, through music, songs, dance and stage movement.
The whole performance was conceived as a picture from the birth of a child, the first steps, meeting the world, meeting person to person and learning about the first relationships, friendships, but also rivalry. Also Finnish and Czech folk songs were performed. During the few days of work, the students got acquainted with everything that made up the performance.
At the beginning, there was a gala concert, which started a focused work. On September 24, 2019, a gala concert was held as part of the Waldorf 100 celebrations, in which the second part of the „architecture“ project and their work in Finland was presented through a photo presentation. It was followed by the Avis Ingeus school choir and also the Finnish delegation presented their folk song which they sang together with the teachers.
The days were in sign of intensive work, it means workshops, where groups worked on singing, dramaturgy and movement. At the end of the week, the performance started to crystallize and got a solid form. The culmination of the whole work was the final performance on September 30, 2019 in the DKMO theater hall, when the entire performance of Performing Art was presented.
The whole first phase of the project was in a friendly atmosphere and the students and the teachers performed very high quality and concentrated show in a high work commitment.
PERFORMING ARTS HELSINKI
In Helsinki we worked with the Circles-performance with a schedule that also allowed the Czech students to get to know the Finnish school building and the finnish way of school studying.
They attended some classes, especially music classes. The schools music classroom was chosen for specific target of interest because of the wide range of musical instruments that the Czech students could then try and practise with.
We also did excursions on two museums and the new Oodi-library of Helsinki. One of the highlights was seeing a contemporary dance demo of Zodiak -dance group and participating afterwards to a talk with the dancers and the directing choreographer. However, during the stay in Helsinki main focus was on practising the performance.
10 We started with getting to know each other again, did group building, physical warm-ups and music making. The students remembered the core of the performance quite well from the Ostrava practise period. We started to work on with some details that we wanted to alter. Details of the performance were discussed in Ostrava and in Helsinki also with the performing students. Based on those discussions the performance was developed further.
We added to the beginning of the performance a czech folk song medley with folk dances. The folk songs are not that popular and well known among Finnish young people and that’s one reason why they were chosen to complete the whole. Folk music and the traditions of both countries played an important role in the performance.
We kept the structure of the Circles-piece quite the same as before. The periodic storyline starts with a dreamlike memory from childhood and continues exploring the phases of human life with symbolic choregraphic ideas representing continuous cycles and periods. We used the idea of circles and the characteristics of both cultures as a material to explore. The performers created their own individual movement language in workshop-based practise.
The students really improved with their skills in expressing themselves. However the warming up of the performance was surprisingly difficult for them. We had to focus on motivating the group to work hard and with resolution together. The performance was based on strong presence of the performers. As amateurs they had to now work like professionals on stage, moving, singing and just being there with self-confidence and actually showing their vulnerability.
We worked a lot in the field of contemporary dance which isn’t easily defined. It’s an unexplored area of art to most of the students. They are more familiar with traditional dance and theatre. It was an eye opening experience for them to work without traditional story line, the script, dialogues and monologues. The Circles project was a wonderful example on how to do a performance based on exploring a phenomena with the means of art and improvisation.
We performed the piece for the audience in the schools theater hall several times. Also the families were invited. The students got wonderful feedback from the audience and we all were happy with the result.
11 LIFE IN FINLAND AND CZECH REPUBLIC
My stay in Finland
My name is Kristýna and I am a student at the Waldorf Secondary Vocational School in Ostrava. In the second year of my studies, I had the opportunity to participate in the wonderful Erasmus + project. From 23th February to 5th March 2020 we spent a beautiful time together with other students of our school in the Nordic country of Finland. Our accommodation took place individually in host families. These were Finnish students and their families who took care of our comfort and program at all times. I established contact with my host family in the Czech Republic before I went there. I knew the young lady from the first phase in the Czech Republic, and therefore our communication was easy. I shared my accommodation with my classmate, with whom we were a support throughout the project.Our family was very helpful in every way. They were constantly interested in our comfort and tried to make our time in this country more pleasant. We didn’t go to school over the weekend, so there was plenty of time for fun. It is definitely worth mentioning a boat trip to the island of Suomelinna or a visit to the sea world or an exhibition in the national center of Haltia. We spent our free time mostly getting to know each other. We visited, for example, Rock church, museums, we went through the center and thanks to our helpful host we learned a lot about, for example, history, individual monuments or simply about the little things that just interested us. We have really experienced a lot in these moments. Thanks to the initial signs of a pandemic and the time we were in Helsinki, we almost completely avoided tourists and were able to observe the normal behavior of Finnish citizens. We could compare their life style with other countries both on the street life and in public transport. This was very interesting. A big bonus was also that we lived in a Finnish family and we had a unique opportunity to perceive, for example, their eating habits or we could try a real Finnish sauna right at their home. In conclusion, I would like to evaluate this great experience in a few sentences. I am extremely grateful to my school for the opportunity to become a member of a wonderful project. Thanks to the project, I saw places where I would probably not get normally, learned something about a new country and gained a lot of experiences. There was no major problem all the time and everything went smoothly. Thanks to my great family, this time was spent in security and comfort. Retroactively I definitely do not regret this opportunity.
Kristýna Tůmová
I am very happy to have participated in the Erasmus + project and I think it was one of the strongest experiences I will ever remember in a long time. Knowledge of interesting Finnish and Czech architectures was also beneficial, and the information provided by our and Finnish teachers enriched me as well. I found out that I could communicate fluently in English and I practiced it well. It was very pleasant to make contact with people of my age from another country and to spend study and leisure time with them. The possibility to live in a Finnish family and to know their customs was also very interesting.
Bruno Heinich
12 I have already met with Finnish culture in the Czech Republic, but in Finland it was expressed much more intensively. Silence, closedness and neutral expressions on the faces are traditional characters and I had an opportunity to experience it. But my family was more vivid, because they had Spanish ancestors.
The environment of Finland was calm, peaceful and the Nordic air led by lots of forests seemed very comfortable to me.
We all visited the Museum of Music in the Pasila Shopping Center, the Oodi Public Library, the historic fortress on the island of Suomenlina, the Amos Rex Museum of Modern and Independent Art and the Zodiac Music Workshop.
I learned a few basic phrases and words of Finnish language, but some of them aren't very proper. The language is otherwise very fine and sounds impressive.
Independence and patience were of course one of the things we practiced. I personally din't have any bigger problem with anything.
Václav Bálek
From my point of view I can only praise, because all the family members we met (the host, his parents, sibling, grandparents, aunt, etc.) were very nice, friendly, communicative, hospitable, helpful, in short, I just appreciate the pros.
Thanks to them, we had the chance to taste traditional Finnish food. Among all the dishes, I would like to highlight the unique taste of reindeer meat with potatoes, sauce and cranberries. I think that speaks for itself!
As for the question of drinking, I can only speak straight away in positive and praiseworthy words. So the hospitality and relationships were very positive and the trips around Helsinki as well. The whole family took part in those trips to Suomenlinna, the city center, and its nooks. The trip with the host´s grandfather, ex pilot, a fan of aviation, to the aviatic museum in Vantae was great and an unforgetable experience for me. We also had the chance to get to know the typical rituals of sauna and the things around it. To sum it all up, I’m very happy that we agreed with Noah and he was our host. The best choice.
Lukáš Hložanka
During my stay in Finland, I was accomodated with a classmate at my family in a terraced house in Espoo, about an hour drive from Helsinki. We welcomed the family with gifts focused on Czech theme, which made them very happy. We spent more time with the family during the weekend, at the week we had a constant program at school where we were mainly rehearsing the final performance and therefore we were basically with the family during the meal time and at night.
It was only at the weekend when our hosts took us to the Natural History Museum, the Sea World
13 and the Art Gallery in Helsinki. Throughout our stay the Finnish hosts were very nice to us, every day after returning to them they asked us what day we had and then we asked them as well.
Our stay in Finland took place at the turn of February and March, so the local weather was very cold and rainy. From a natural point of view, Finland is a very forested country and it includes a huge number of lakes. Even though the Finns are said to be quieter and not so voluble, our Finnish classmates communicated very actively and they liked to involve us in various activities even after school time.
Most of the Finnish population has a sauna at home and they use it regularly. Our hosts were no exception and we had an opportunity to use their sauna as well. As far as food consumption in Finland they drink milk with every meal, so we were quite an exception when we were the only ones at table who drank water. The local Waldorf school, originally called Rudolf Steiner Koulu Helsinki, interested me a lot. At the school it was apparent, that the local level of education is much more advanced than in our country. It was the same in the question of the relations between the students and the teachers, school meals which allow students to choose either vegetarian, vegan or regular meals and there was also a clear difference between our and the local education system.
Natálie Laníková
Getting to know a czech family has been amazing. It has been great to get to know people I never would’ve had the change to meet without this project. I stayed with Václav Bálek in Bělský Les.
When we arrived to Ostrava on Monday, they had prepared a welcoming dinner for me and we had a nice evening in their flat. Václav’s sister, Rozina, had also been part of a project like ours years ago and even lived in Finland for a few years so she told me about her experience.
Some evenings I chatted with the mother of the family. She was really kind and warm to me, we talked about music, art, movies and hobbies.
On Saturday we went to celebrate the birthday of Václav’s niece. I had fun, we talked about everything, things in Finland, things in (CZ). I played the Finnish national anthem on piano. The same night we met Rozina and her husband in the city center and talked more about everything, it was probably my favourite night out.
On Tuesday we had dinner in an Italian restaurant with the family. The food was delicious andante again the chat we had was very nice to speak with ordinary but still interesting people from a foreign country. We also took some pictures there to have memories, it was really nice but at the same time sad to realise that I was leaving the next day.
All in all the I’m glad to have met such amazing and kind people and really wish I’ll have a change to meet them again someday.
Pepita Suzy Lado Villar
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