PARTY (Participatory Development with The Youth)

Art Exhibition at Kalahari Desert Festival

During the Kalahari Desert Festival (KDF) 2018 PARTY project organized a small exhibition showcasing impressive outcomes of project work done in Platfontein.

KDF is a yearly festival organized by SASI to celebrate the culture of desert people. It was held between 21. - 23. March 2018 in Askham, South Africa. The underlying theme of the exhibition was “Visual Reflections”. The artworks created were of two different kinds: Photographs taken by young San people and felting artworks created by San women. The purpose and nature of the artworks creation and exhibition is explained below.

Photography artworks

Taking photographs has become a major tool of visual reflection in modern times. Often representing the beauty of people and landscapes, photography has become an art in itself. Living in a “smart phone society”, photographs and taking pictures likewise have become a part of everyone’s life. PARTY member Pirjo Puurunen, a professional photographer from the University of Lapland, made use of her profession to uplift the San youth’s self-esteem.

After a basic lecture in photography, the young participants were given cameras to take portraits of each other, putting into practice what they had just learned. During this activity they took over both roles, model and photographer. The pictures taken showed great skill and the exercise had an interesting effect on the participants: The very good quality of the pictures helped the young people visualising a different self - them being from a marginalised community, now on pictures taken by themselves, that are similar to the celebrities on TV and the internet.

Felting artworks

Felt, unlike photography, is one of the oldest ways of making fabric. Crafting has been an important part in the lives of the San since millennia. The two PARTY members Anu Kylmanen and Susanna Vuorjoki, both professional artists at the University of Lapland, made use of their skills to trigger emotional and social well-being in the participants through crafting and mastering a new technique: felting.

The very skilled participating women were immediately able to connect to the workshop activity and feedback given by them showed an uplift in self-esteem due to the newly learned technique.