Izstāde un radošā darbnīca "ComiX4= Komiksi vienlīdzībai" Rīgā

Fragments no Amandas Baezas komiksa "Bērni atklāj, ko slēpj pieaugušie"

kuš! aicina uz izstādes "Komiksi vienlīdzībai" atklāšanu un radošo darbnīcu! 
Izstādes atklāšana: 10.jūlijā, 18.30 Rīgas jauniešu centrā „Kaņieris” (Kaņiera iela 15, www.kopnica.lv)

Četrpadsmit vizuāli stāsti aicina ielūkoties Eiropā, kas aug, mainās, un ir nepārtrauktā kustībā. Izstādes darbu autori stāsta par migrāciju – fenomenu, kuru paši ir piedzīvojuši. Šobrīd viņi dzīvo Eiropā, taču viņi vai viņu ģimene nākusi no citas valsts Eiropā vai ārpus tās. Viņu komiksi atklāj gan dažnedažādos migrācijas veidus, gan savu un vecāku personīgo pieredzi – to, kas šī procesa rezultātā ticis pazaudēts, atrasts vai tiek veidots no jauna. Izstādes darbi ir daļa no konkursa par pirmo Eiropas balvu komiksu autoriem ar migrācijas izcelsmi.

Fragments no Tomasa Kušēri komiksa "Problēma"

Izstādē piedalās: Angela Wanjiku Njoroge, Mari Ahokoivu, Amanda Baeza, Miriam Klara Czapp, Corsino, Dmitry Yagodin, Carlos G.C. Medina, Sabīne Moore, Evangelos Androutsopoulos, Elena Vitagliano, Thomas Cuschieri, Camilo Collao, Dora Graur, Laura Ķeniņš

Pirms izrādīšanas Rīgā, izstāde pabijusi Igaunijā, Bulgārijā, Rumānijā, Austrijā, Zviedrijā un Portugālē.

Ilustrācijas autore: Amanda Baeza

Radošā darbnīca: 13.jūlijā no 11.00 – 19.00 (abas dienas) Rīgas jauniešu centrā „Kaņieris”. 

Piedalīties aicināts ikviens vecumā no 15 līdz 25 gadiem, kam interesē vizuāli stāsti!

Divu dienu darbnīcā dalībnieki varēs piedalīties radošās aktivitātēs neformālās mācīšanās vidē, iemācīties, kā izstāstīt stāstu komiksā un iepazīties ar komiksu autoru migrācijas pieredzes stāstiem.

See this spot?

At the end of the Comics Artventures week there was also a comics workshop at the Polish female comics exhibition "Double Portrait". The workshop which was fully booked out and got great feedback from the participants was led by Maria Ines Gul and Renata Gasiorowska. Some pictures of it you can find here, but now you can also read a comics about it made by the participant Edgars Sims!

 

We are happy that we had so many creative participants like Edgars and hopefully soon again we'll make some more workshops...

Comics Artventures I

International Comics Week Riga, 20.11-25.11.2012

(Poster by Mārtiņš Zutis) 

kuš! together with the Latvian National Art Museum and in cooperation with Kaņepes Kultūras centrs invited 6 international and 4 Latvian artists to get inspired by Latvian classical art to create artventurous comics. Artists taking part from abroad were Mari Ahokoivu (Finland), Emelie Östergren (Sweden), Søren Mosdal (Denmark), Nicolas Zouliamis (Belgium),  König Lü.Q. (Switzerland) and Renata Gasiorowska (Poland). Latvian artists: Mikus Duncis, Ernests Kļaviņš, Anna Vaivare and Mārtiņš Zutis. 

During this very inspiring week different events took place, some only for the participating artists, but others also for the wider public. Here is a small report about it.

The week begun with a guided tour through the Museum's collection of Classical Latvian Art. Each artist got to pick a work to make a comics about it.

Komiksu radošās darbnīcas senioriem Rīgā

Pirmdien, 18. jūnijā Dienas centrā „Ābeļzieds” notiks komiksu kultūras žurnāla kuš! komiksu radošā darbnīca senioriem mākslinieces Ingrīdas Pičukānes vadībā.

 

Jūnijā un augustā Dienas centrā „Ābeļzieds” notiks vairāku komiksu radošo darbnīcu sērija, ko komiksu kultūras žurnāls kuš! un Ingrīda Pičukāne rīko projekta „Dzīvesstāsti – komiksu darbnīcas senioriem” ietvaros. Seniori radošajās darbnīcās ar netradicionāla, stāstoša medija – komiksa – starpniecību varēs pastāstīt savus stāstus un vizualizētu tos komiksos. Komiksu darbnīcas senioriem tiks balstītas uz „grassroots comics” principiem - komiksu var radīt ikviens cilvēks, jo katram ir kāds stāsts, ko pastāstīt citiem, zīmēšanas prasmes nav nepieciešamas. Piedalīties aicināts ikviens seniors, kuru interesē atklāt ko jaunu.

No jūnija līdz septembrim komiksu radošās darbnīcās senioriem notiks arī citviet Rīgā.

Projektu „Dzīvesstāsti – komiksu darbnīcas senioriem” finansiāli atbalsta Sorosa fonds – Latvija EU Partnership Funding ietvaros. Plašāka informācija par Sorosa fonda – Latvija atbalsta virzieniem pieejama internetā www.sfl.lv.

ilustrācijas: IngrīdaPičukāne

 

Komiksu kultūras žurnāls kuš! kopš 2007. gada izdod Latvijā vienīgo komiksu izdevumu kuš!, kas domāta tiem, kuri vairs nav bērni. kuš! izdevumos publicēti kā Latvijas, tā starptautisku jaunu un jau pasaulē atzītu komiksu autoru darbi. Līdztekus izdevējdarbībai kuš! organizē un piedalās izstādēs, komiksu un laikmetīgās mākslas festivālos Latvijā un ārvalstīs, un sadarbībā ar Latvijas māksliniekiem rīko un vada komiksu radošās darbnīcas.

Ingrīda Pičukāne mākslas projektos piedalās kopš 1998.gada. Ieguvusi maģistra grādus Latvijas Mākslas akadēmijas Vizuālās komunikācijas nodaļā, kā arī Tallinas Mākslas akadēmijas Animācijas nodaļā. Savu ideju realizēšanai Ingrīda izmanto dažādus medijus un mākslas formas – komiksu, animāciju, video, instalācijas un performances. Ingrīdu interesē cilvēki un dokumentāli stāsti, viņa pēta sabiedrības iekšējās likumsakarības un indivīdu lomu tajās. Ingrīda ir piedalījusies un vadījusi vairākas komiksu un animācijas filmu darbnīcas.

Nordicomics workshop in arctic Riga

Despite the temperatures well below zero, last week in Riga kuš! hosted the traveling Nordicomics workshop organized in cooperation with the Finnish Comics Society.


Seven artists: Mari Ahokoivu and Heidi Salminen from Finland, Esben S. Titland from Norway, Mikkel Sommer from Denmark, Maria Dziarmaga from Poland, Ingrīda Pičukāne and Oskars Pavlovskis from Latvia came over to explore the deep freeze and create Riga inspired comics, which will be published in a set of postcards. (first Nordicomics-Rigacomics postcards ever!)

To warm up for drawing,  EatRiga alternative tour guides zigzagged us through the city to get a closer look and feel of places, especially those outside the centre district, that otherwise we might have never visited or would have just walked by without noticing.

Indeed it's hard to believe but here once was a river that gave the name and place to the city of Riga

Did you know there is a bunch of very special Riga characters?
Some guys were built in old church walls, some are still sitting on top of buildings and churches in a form of a cat or a rooster...

some other might work at, or follow you from the Central market...

or maybe hide inside the beautiful wooden buildings in Maskavas forštate or Āgenskalns...

Mikkel Sommer and Esben S. Titland probably found a few more behind the hot heaters inside the very beautiful wooden Jesus Church in Maskavas Forštate area.

On Wednesday night at Nabaklab we closed the Nordicomics exhibition (showcasing the works created during the Nordicomics  previously visited cities) with comics presentations and a comics battle.

Mari Ahokoivu draws and teaches comics, and her comics blog is the longest running comics blog in Finland!

Ingrīda Pičukāne revealed some very interesting details of her creative process

Oskars Pavlovskis has recently returned from a study semester in Lisbon and definitely has met many impressive and inspiring characters as we can see in his illustration...

Our cameras unfortunately blurred the pictures of the presentation by Esben.  However, he took part in the comics battle and won it along with Mikkel!  For the first time there were 2 winners - Riga is truly inspirational, told you!

 

 A few more impressions from the comics battle:

Mārtiņš Zutis

Mari Ahokoivu (or 2 of them?)

Ingrīda Pičukāne draws one more cute kitten; there can never be too many of them!

And finally some impressions from the workshop itself:

On the last day Ingrida and Oskars find out they have drawn the same character

Oskars Pavlovskis' Sketch

Ingrīda Pičukāne's Sketch

Riga by Maria Dziarmaga

Heidi Salminen sketching faces of Riga

Trams in Riga or trams in river by Oskars Pavlovskis

by Esben S. Titland

by Mikkel Sommer (or Esben S. Titland?)

by Mikkel Sommer

Esben and a kitten by Mikkel Sommer

by Mari Ahokoivu

The Nordicomics workshop and the exhibition was supported by: The Embassy of Finland, Latvian Art Academy, Eat Riga Tours, Finnish Comics Society, Latvian Contemporary Art Centre, Nabaklab, Norden Culture Point, kuš!

Naturegraffix Workshop

Last week before the opening of our Naturegraffix/ Nordicomics exhibition we had a workshop in Riga led by Estonian animator and comics artist Liza Salmin.

The workshop was attended by participants from Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. Here you can find a digital shelf of the workshop comics: http://www.naturegraffix.info/comiczinelibrary.html

An excerpt of one of our most favourite stories created by Liva and Laura Aboltina we would like to share with you here:

Piedalies starptautiskā komiksu darbnīcā Tallinā!

Vēl 2 vietas brīvas komiksu darbnīcā Tallinā kopā ar starptautiskiem māksliniekiem! Lasi programmu un piesakies, sūtot ziņas par sevi - vārdu, uzvārdu, vecumu, un mazu portfolio līdz piektdienai, 18. novembrim uz epastu kushmens(at) gmail(.)com. Līdz svētdienas vakaram dosim atbildi.

 Illustration by Bendik Kaltenborn

Nordicomics Baltic workshop
The Finnish Comics Society is hosting a Nordicomics workshop in Tallinn. The workshop will be held in Rotermanni keskus in central Tallinn, Estonia, at the Pop-up Koomiksikeskus from 5th to 9th of December 2011. At the same time there will be the Nordicomics Baltic exhibition, which showcases new comics from the Nordic and Baltic countries.

Main idea of the workshop is to work with other artists and network! The similar workshop has been held in Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen and St. Petersburg. More information about the Nordicomics program at www.nordicomics.info

Nordicomics workshop and Pop-up Koomiksikeskus is organized with the Finnish Institute of Estonia and with the funding from Nordic Culture Point.

Finnish Johnny Depp and comics come to town

Last weekend (October 29th and 30th) in Dirty Deal together with Finnish Institute in Estonia we organized 2 workshops for 16 - 24 years old youngsters from Riga. Comics teacher Petri Koikkalainen came from Helsinki to lead the workshops together with Latvian artists Ingrīda Pičukāne and Reinis Pētersons.

Altogether 12 young people took part in workshops and learned how to develop characters, what to tell with pictures, how to deal with words, bubbles and when to leave the text completely out.
Participants met Clint Eastwood in a desert and found out how to draw a comics strip, how to tell a story about their home city, where to draw important details and what to leave in the background.  Then a comics-real Johnny Depp arrived in Riga, where he went to the market and got into trouble straight away. Finally, everyone with pencils drew a story and saved him. Soon the comics made during the workshops will be published on the comics workshop blog, there you can find what happened later on.

Here are some impressions from the workshops:

Supported by the Finnish Institute in Estonia, the Embassy of Finland in Riga and Helsinki Comics Centre.

Comics Workshop with Sylvain-Moizie

Wednesday and Thursday kuš! was on the Latvian country side in Valmiera with the french comics artists Sylvain-Moize. We didn't just relax there enjoying the snow, no no, we had a very intensive comics workshop with pupils from the Valmiera Art School, where Sylvain introduced the art of creating comics with very interesting and fun methods. After those two days we took Sylvain to the Latvian Art Academy to hold one more workshop in the capital. The participants were just amazing and kuš! can look forward to great contributions from young Latvian artists!

 Sylvain is supervising the pupils from Valmiera

Sylvain following David and Dace through the snow.

Sylvain takes part in the comics-jam. Everyone had to start a story with one panel and the next participants had to continue the story in the same style. After every panel the story rotated, which made this a very fun exercise.

 Here Sylvain is explaining what could be improved.

This is one of the finished jam comics.

The workshop was supported by the "co-operation Bas-Rhin - Vidzeme" and by the French Culture Centre in Riga.