Animus i Anima

Description of the activity

The workshop took place on the 21st and 22nd of April, 2005.
On the first day the leader introduced himself and familiarized himself with the participants. After the short introduction he suggested students dividing into small groups and walking around the city. This way nine groups were made consisting of two, three or four students. Their task was first to observe people they met during the walk and then choose one to focus their attention on.
What characterizes this person? Clothes, figure, age, the way of moving, gestures, smile or lack of the smile give us a lot of information. Thanks to it we can guess who the watched person is. We can describe this person's appearance. Although we will never know his/her thoughts, her/his glance, way of moving, figure and voice let us create the internal portrait of our Hero.
Each of the participants became a detective and created a portrait of his/her HERO.
Having returned to the Gallery, each group made a sketch of a chosen person. Then, they had to shape their body according to one of the sketches to catch the likeness. In each group one of the students was a model and partners from the team portrayed the figure creating a sculpture.
To fulfil this task, they received 50 meter long wire netting with small meshes, protective gloves, scissors and pincers. The shaped body was wrapped in the wire netting, it was closed as if it was in a cage. A person who was inside the wire netting was watching the partners' work throw the meshes.
The aim of the task was to impress precisely the shape of model's body in the wire netting through denting and stretching it. To release the model from this "armour" the group had to untie softly the wire netting and then fasten the edges together again. It was necessary to get the appropriate shape of the sculpture.

That day the workshop lasted 4 hours. However, there were groups which did not finish their work. It occurred that the material was too difficult to be formed. Some people suffered even from small cuts.

The second day: 22nd of April, 2005
On the second day the wired sculptures were finished. Small corrections were made. As a result, nine wired "dolls" were created. They were dolls without the body. But who knows, maybe they had a soul?
Each of them got a name or a pseudonym.
"Mummy" ("Mumia") authors: Agata (model), Milena, Angelika
"The Flexible"("Gibki") authors: Krzysztof (model), Tomasz,
"Only at our place..."("Tylko u nas..." ) authors: Justyna (model), Ewelina, Monika, Justyna, Andrzej, Marcin
"Merciful Samaritan"("Miłosierny samarytanin") authors: Ania (model), Ola
"Teacher" ("Nauczyciel") authors: Magda K. (model), Magda P, Marta
"Mime" ("Mim") authors: Agata (model), Karolina
"Maziu" authors: Maciek (model), Emilia, Damian
"Sophia" ("Zocha") authors: Kasia (model), Paula
"?" authors: Grażyna (model), Karolina, Michał

The participants of the workshop took away the finished sculptures on the New Town Market, in front of the Gallery. Then they put them exactly in the place where they had met the Hero the day before. Each of the sculptures was exceptional because it reflected internal and external features of the Hero, as well as the features of the group because all students engaged themselves emotionally in the realization. They identified themselves with a different person and evoked in themselves emotions which the Hero could feel.
Precisely situated sculptures created a special environment around the Mikołaj Kopernik Monument, call boxes, trees, shop-windows and dust-bins. Sculptures' authors took many pictures. "Walking down the street" sculptures attracted the passersby' attention. Some of them recognized themselves in the sculptures and it was a nice surprise for them.
After the presentation all participants met again in the gallery to share the opinions and feelings they had experienced during the workshop. It turned out that none of them had used wire netting as a material for the sculpture before. They learned that unpleasant and cold to the touch rough wire can be formed in accordance with the authors' idea.
"I can do it!" exclaimed one of the students who was proud of her achievement. The workshop gave the participants the chance to compare their way of working with the way others work. It was an experience which integrated all participants because nobody would be able to create such a sculpture himself. The partners' help was absolutely necessary in that case.
Two of the sculptures are exhibited in the Gallery and Children Artistic Creation Centre in Toruń. The rest of them is in the school's Gallery in the 28th Gymnasium in Toruń.