Together, we let the washhouse come to life again. Four wash-women (created by us) and their two children will meet and chat with us – people from 21st century.
We will create together five 3D large panels: cooling-towers of Differdange; and four wash-women and their two children. A structure covered with mixed-media upcycled canvases (“bricks”) will illuminate the washhouse. The rising sun in the back wall will bring the light to the inner walls.
Stanislava will work in the washhouse every other week (Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday – 9:00-13:00 and 14:00-19:00) – starting 14 March 2022.
Citizens of Differdange and visitors: you can come and create with Stanislava; and by chatting together remember wash-women and their chats;
OR
You can attend upcycled media workshops at the spot free-of-charge (see notes below);
OR
You can adopt one of 104 “bricks” – all the proceedings will be donated to the organisation(s) in Differdange (decided by citizens – you can already place your suggestions in the comments);
AND
You can give names to the women and the children and vote on which name they get (you can suggest their names in the comments).
WILL YOU COME TO CHAT WITH ME? …AND CREATE TOGETHER?
Project will be realised under the personal auspices of H.E. Mr. Vladimír Bärtl, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
Notes:
– Model (in ratio 1:7) shows both upcycled and finished canvases. For colours, see simplified sketches. For the shape of sun rays, see the metal door of the washhouse. Within creation, clotheslines with laundry to be added during creation time.
– Upcycling: use of different paper and plastic waste; not needed stuff and old clothes in creating of artwork
– Upcycled mixed-media workshops: 6 workshops for maximum of 10 participants/each – 3 x 4 hours in three following days (registration needed) (all art supplies will be available on site)
– Panel dimensions: cooling-towers of Differdange – approx. 3.5 x 6.0 metres, wash women – approx. 3.5 x 2.5 metres (four panels)
– Structure for panels NOT touching the walls and ceiling – constructed from scaffold tubes covered with a wire fence.
– Financial support (15 000 EUR) will be used for canvases, construction of the structure for panels, covering of the floor during creation, workshops, all creation material (colours, glue, brushes, other stuff for mixed technique and much more), refreshments for co-creators, banners and other promotion material, lights, insurance etc.
– All hygienic measures applied on site.
6 Responses
What happens to the paper/plastic artwork, canvases, bricks and banners after a year?
Thank you very much for your comment, Inès. This is the excellent question!
One year was settled because of wet conditions in the washhouse.
There are several possibilities after one year:
1) Panels could be donated to different places in Differdange (or another places in Luxembourg) – schools, elderly homes, different organizations. Up to five of them (five large panels available).
2) If individual “bricks” (canvases) are adopted they can be given to their donors to remind them their act of good will. You can see letters and numbers of bricks in the model so it is very easy to recognize them. The rest of bricks might be put to auction to increase the amount of adopted bricks.
3) If in a good condition after one year, the artwork can stay much longer in the washhouse.
For the banners, they will stay in my archive for future exhibitions.
I would be happy to know what do you prefer?
Stanislava
I love the idea that the artist will be PRESENT in the installation und thus becomes part of it.
What I do not understand is the connection between the cooling towers and the wash house.
The names of the four wash women should IMO represent the four most spoken languages in Differdange.
Thank you very much for your comment, Conradin.
Yes, I wanted to be PRESENT and within the creation, I wanted to get feeling which the washwomen had when laundering. In addition, I hope, many visitors will come to share this feeling.
As DiffMix is a part of European Capital of Culture (which is Esch for 2022) and there might be many European visitors in Differdange, I wanted to create an atmosphere of the beginning of last century, when the mining and steeling industry in Differdange was the main employer in the city. Moreover, majority of washwomen´s husbands worked in the mining and steeling industry.
For the names, you are right. What would be your suggestions? Citizens of Differdange will decide names.
The names for the wash women:
Clothilde, Anne, Laura and Jaqueline
The names for the children if boys:
Fernand and Jean
The names for the children if girls:
Otilde and Petra
Thank you very much for your comment, Tine.
Your names are beautiful 🙂
Children are girls, they usually helped their mothers.