CHILDREN AND LAND ART
At Eden School learning revolves, in part, around the academic programs. Year after year these academic programs, that are adapted to the age of the children, sustain their academic journey.
In order to award meaning to the construction of knowledge, projects consolidate the didactic work as they place the learner in the middle of an interdisciplinary topic. These projects, developed in a class or in the whole school, involve the children in their learning process when faced with acquiring knowledge and abilities, which are the basic components of a solid academic formation. These projects also have the virtue of uniting the entire school community.
Eden School was given the opportunity to be present at the 5th edition of Artgenève, the international exhibit of contemporary art and design. In the spirit of this event, the teachers built a school project that placed “Art” at the center of the academic year. To do so they began by setting the scene: at the beginning of the school year we decided to attend an art camp that revolved around “Land Art”, an artistic movement born in the 1970’s that uses materials found in nature as well as the setting to produce and exhibit the works of art.
Under the direction of Geneviève Holvoët and Nicolas Koch, visual artists and professors of Fine Arts at Annecy, the purpose of the camp was, in part, to address the artistic proposals of Land Art, observe the natural environment that surrounded them and thus allow them to achieve personal and collaborative objectives. Immersion in this creative environment allowed the children to embrace the challenges of an ephemeral, transient creation leaving behind a story told, reshaped by time and weather. When abandoning the creations in nature, questions as to how to document them were asked. Many pictures and videos were taken.
This rich experience helped the children to assimilate the fact that the creative act is an opportunity for inquiry in which the work of art lives in the eyes of the beholder. To start the year with a time to “live together” has, without a shadow of a doubt, allowed us to create a binding experience that has touched us all and constitutes an essential component of school life.
This art camp was extended: Eden School assigned a day every month to work with Geneviève Holovët. The children were required to submit their proposals within the topic of travel, the route, the road, their position within the landscape and of their point of view. By using different media, in class or outdoors, a collection of works emerged. These works focused more on communicating and questioning than on a search for beauty. Tracing paper, oil pastels, twine, chalk, pencils, clay, bodies in motion, mirrors… These materials were made available to the children to inspire new questions, points of view, design their research, share and learn to revisit the results.
Congratulations to our students for their wonderful collaboration and all the creative energy they put into these workshops.
