Andrej Kmeť Grammar School, Banská Štiavnica: Natália Javorková, Klára Petrová under the guidance of Zuzana Horniaková

On 03.03.2020, we presented to the students of Andrej Kmeť Grammar School in Banská Štiavnica our work connected to the theme of the art competition Máš umelecké črevo? The remarkable theme of the 2019/20 year was the Butterfly Effect, and we approached its idea from a generally known perspective. Ecology was our greatest muse and accompanied us throughout the installation. As materials, we mostly used waste or old, unnecessary objects. We also looked at this theme through other aspects, which you can see in the form of the final work.
Another connection with the theme of the Butterfly Effect was the process of the installation in progress. In the classroom, we placed fragments of the sculpture, which consisted of a supporting section on which Velcro fasteners, clips and various tools were placed to create the final form of the work.
Sound evoking joy, fear or a feeling of unease accompanied the entire installation. The contrasts of light and darkness were, for our work, a factor influencing cooperation with the students and a stimulus for creating a kind of atmosphere previously unknown to them. They were also a means of detaching ourselves from the school environment and creating our own world and intimacy. One of the biggest roles was played by the students of our school, whom we involved in creating the sculpture, representing them as people, us as a society, or the future generation that will live on our planet after us.
Using the objects we provided, their task was to use their creativity, cooperation and development of creative thinking. While creating the sculpture, we held a conversation with the students about the themes of recycling, upcycling and the butterfly effect. In addition to the objects, the students were provided with paints, brushes and other art supplies, with which they had the opportunity to paint the sculpture and breathe personality into it. Part of the project’s idea was the expression of the human soul and originality, a strong personality and intelligence reduced to the waste we leave behind, which will probably outlive us. Among the pieces of waste used to create the sculpture, pieces of cardboard with abstract words such as love, disease, temporarity, happiness, sadness and creation were incorporated, and the students were to include them in their work. These words represented human emotions and concepts intended to symbolize the already mentioned complexity of humanity. The words were in English because we carried out the project with bilingual students.
In the final phase, we opened a discussion and talked with the students about their impressions of our work. For them, this project was an experience that drew them away from the monotony of an ordinary day. They enjoyed expressing themselves creatively. We were surprised by their creative ability and by how they engaged with the assigned task. At the end of our conversation, we recommended that if they see discarded waste lying around, they should think about how it ended up there and what story it too has behind it. Based on this idea, we wrote short stories inspired by the verbal names of the objects. These words name things considered priorities for humanity at the present time.