Research + Development 2 / 2

The Propera project was planned and carried out in Mataro, in the scope of the IDENSITAT 07 programme, by Katalin Soós fine artist, cultural anthropologist and art pedagogue, and Mónika Bálint sociologist and cultural organiser.

The project was realised with the participation of 16 teenagers of the ages of 13-15. It was not an ad hoc group: they are members of a community who attend the same school, and most of them dwell in a specific neighbourhood of Mataro. Their parents, some of them immigrants, work in nearby factories and shops. The workgroup that was constituted by the kids and the two project leaders reflected on the everydays of the city, the thoughts, ideas and desires of the teenagers living there. The research intended to explore these specificities, and the video (Professionals) is built on the motifs that resulted from this research. Its theme can be summarised as the valuation of work, labour and specific occupations in local respect, as conceived by a teenager.

Course of the project: In the first (preparatory) stage of the project the group made a 13 minute video work with the guidance of Katalin Soós. The film entitled The Girls, the Boys and the Two Rich People was made in the soap opera form out of the stories and with the participation of the teenagers.

On the one hand, the soap opera episode, as a means of cognition and gathering information, fulfilled the role of preliminary research and that of forming the creative community. On the other hand, it became one of the presented elements of the project upon its completion. The themes reflected on by the video work made by Katalin Soós in the second stage of the project were arrived at through the observations made and the lessons learned from the interviews during the process of creating the episode. (The children participated as actors in the latter as well.)

Presented elements of the project: The separate elements of the project – the two video works and the observations – are closely bound together and act synergically, while having different characters due to the different methods and undertakings of the two project leaders.

The soap opera form was suggested by Katalin Soós with the aim of facilitating acquaintance and group formation. Collective creative work and the visual language are not alienating, but on the contrary, familiar to all participants. In addition, it explores (and presents) the characters and their environment as a research tool based on visual language.

The written notes of observations accumulate the information gathered throughout the process. This descriptive research determined the themes of the second video work.

The second video (Professionals) reacts to the experience summed up by these two former products, accentuating the most characteristic features regarding the kids working in the group, interpreting the explored facts, ideas, relations and desires.

Elements of the exhibiton in Budapest:
Katalin Soós: The Girls, the Boys and the Two Rich People (video); Professionals (video)
Mónika Bálint: Mataro – narrative city map (printed text)
The project was realised with the help of Can Xalant Art Centre and András Vince cameraman.