We, Simone Grothe and Ede Sevenich, are graduate students of Fine Art and Design in Education at Zuyd Hogeschool
in Maastricht. New is that we graduate as a team. By combining our contradictory qualities, we gain new insights, it has added value. During our visual graduation work, we started at the beginning of this school year (September 2019) with setting up a project around the workload that lies with students. However, this project has become so big that we explored this as an overarching theme during our graduation.
"Eleutheromenia" is the title of our visual work. The subject of this work is based on students who dare to share personal and negative experiences about their study. We have translated these stories into a film, consisting of nine different performances with corresponding poems. The nine different performances are linked to nine different emotions that students experience during their studies. The performances are absurd and recorded in abandoned locations / buildings.
The exhibition focuses on the visitor. The film is presented in a decorated room reminiscent of a home. To stimulate and test the visitor on his / her values and standards, cookies and cocktails are placed in the room. When does art become interactive and what aspects determine this? In addition, the poems will play in the room, where the visitor will be verbally attacked every time. Eleutheromenia is an installation that will provoke in many different ways.
'Agitatie' - ABER-research
The research technique Art Based Educational Research (ABER) offers the possibilty to research a subject in the most creative way possible and ultimately to present it in a creative way. Art will be used as a binder for research.
Our research concerns various bottlenecks in student pressure. We believe that too little attention is being paid to this problem. Despite the fact that stress is expressed in an individual way, it is an universal problem that the present time created. We have offered a listening ear to students of Zuyd Hogeschool and hope to translate this in the right way through a short film and music. By merging and considering all visual aspects and sound characteristics, our keyword 'pressure' will become clearly visible to the viewer.