ART AND CREATIVITY
29 September – 22 November
The Guardian Eye
Venue: Arsenale
PRIMARY (Years 3 and 4)
This workshop takes inspiration from the artistic practice of Daniel Lind Ramos, whose work in the exhibition features sentinel-like entities made by assembling found objects. These figures pay tribute to the guardians watching over the island of Puerto Rico, and here they stand guard over the exhibition and its visitors. At the Arsenale, a portable fan placed at the top of the sculpture’s body acts as a watchful, attentive eye observing us. Children will have the opportunity to create their own guardian—a group sentinel to look over them.
Cheeky Little Sprite
Venue: Arsenale
PRIMARY (Years 5 and 6)
Koyo Kouoh highlights how the Exhibition is made up of artistic practices that open portals, renew, nourish, and stimulate relationships and connections between individuals. This workshop draws inspiration from the artistic practice of Ranti Bam, for whom creation is a process of merging with her sculptural work, fully immersing herself in the composition of the clay. Children will mould air-drying clay (Das) to create their own guiding spirit or animal. These can then be enriched with natural elements reminiscent of the plant world, such as dried seeds and pulses, to create a direct connection with the earth. All the creatures produced will come together to form a group of guiding animals, each with its own unique characteristics.
Balacing Boxes
PRIMARY (Years 3 and 4)
Venue: Giardini
The artist Sohrab Hura has moved from photography to figurative paintings that depict fragments of life, some of which come alive on the surfaces of cardboard boxes. Looking closely at this material, one often finds an additional hidden image inside, as if the container itself could tell us different stories—some more visible, others more concealed. Moving around them, we realise that the narrative is non-linear and the meaning can be interchangeable. In this workshop, children will use an everyday object, like a box, to create a totem or sculpture.
The Forest of Special Animals
PRIMARY (Years 3 and 4)
Venue: Giardini
A guided observation workshop based on a forest inhabited by special animals, with the aim of creating the class’s very own ‘forest of special animals’. Children will observe, compare and classify the animals based on shared criteria, and build simple representations, such as pictograms. The itinerary integrates linguistic, logical-mathematical and graphic-motor skills. This creative journey takes children from initial observation to the first steps of data organisation, culminating in one or more simple representations (pictograms) to summarise and visualise the characteristics of the animals they have created.
Initiative organised in collaboration with the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat).
Animal Geometries
PRIMARY (Years 5 and 6)
Venue: Giardini
The artist Celia Vásquez Yui belongs to the Shipibo, an indigenous group from the Peruvian Amazon. For the Shipibo, there is a sense of reciprocity with artworks: looking at art implies that the art, in turn, might somehow look back. This power stems from kené, an ancient geometric art and spiritual practice involving intricate geometric motifs engraved and painted on various surfaces. Based on lines, spirals and labyrinthine paths, these patterns intertwine in a seemingly complex yet strictly symmetrical way, possessing optical qualities believed to induce subtle transformations in the viewer, operating as a form of "medicine-drawing". This workshop takes inspiration from the kené technique; children will experiment with woodblock printing to create these intricate geometric patterns and fashion their own guiding animals.
From Words to Data... In a Postcard
PRIMARY (Years 5 and 6)
Venue: Giardini
The workshop begins with the pupils' everyday experiences: by writing (or reading) a short text on a postcard, each child shares how they spend their time, describing their daily activities. Rereading these texts ‘through a statistician’s lens’, they can uncover information hidden between the lines that transforms into data. Pupils will learn how to collect, organise and present this data using simple graphic tools, such as ideograms and pictograms, or through more creative and unconventional methods. The activity gradually bridges the gap between narrative and quantitative language, fostering observation, data organisation and interpretation skills. Initiative organised in collaboration with the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat).
(Available in Italian. Also available in English upon request by emailing: promozione@labiennale.org)