Balkan slipper

On a way to Iceland

2014/2015

 

In 2015, the project Balkan slipper connected Jesenice, Ljubljana, and Reykjavik. It was aimed at women migrants from former Yugoslavian republics – their empowerment, cultural and social integration, integration, and creation with textile handicraft. It was based on the results and findings from the projects Revealed hands, and continued work with the same vulnerable group.

The project started with slippers, which immigrated women carried in the memory of their hands, and were learnt how to make them as girls by their female ancestors. Later, a traditional Balkan slipper experienced design transformations and updates through group researches. With the contact with Icelandic heritage, it also took on its elements. The research part of the project was carried out parallel in Slovenia (under the Oloop group leadership) and in Iceland under the leadership of the designer and lecturer Bryndís G. Björgvinsdóttir from Iceland.

Co-creation results – a collection of hand-made knitted slippers and shoe socks – and the work process itself were presented in a form of active exhibition in both countries, namely at Museum of Architecture and Design in Ljubljana and at gallery of the Town Library in Reykjavik in Iceland.

Website management

Mentors: Petra Bukovinski, Maša Majce Mesarič, Kristjan Jarni, Tjaša Bavcon Designers Maša in Petra presented participants with the basic principles of design and management of a completely new sales website Revealed hands. Participants learnt to run, manage, and enter the data into the on-line shop, as well as to enter texts and photographs. Tjaša Bavcon…

Humanitarian and pedagogical work

Mentors: Faila Pašić Bišić, Tjaša Bavcon, Jasmina Ferček Trainings were aimed at psychosocial empowerment of the asylum holders, meeting, connecting, and expressing through conversations in a circle and motivational tasks carried out by Faila Pašić Bišić. Textile handicraft (finger crocheting of pillows) under the supervision of Tjaša Bavcon and Jasmina Ferček, which was also an…

Creating video contents

  Mentors: Miha Možina, Lucija Ćirović, Alja Sušnik, Tjaša Bavcon, Katja Burger, Kristjan Jarni Diverse trainings were aimed at learning the basic film language and obtaining the basic skills in the field of recording sound and image, mask, photography, lightning, and performance in front of the film camera and posing in front of the camera.…

Basic promotional skills

Mentors: Nataša Briški, Lucija Ćirović, Špela Strasser, Jasmina Ferček, Faila Pašić Bišić, Tjaša Bavcon Trainings within this set were very diverse. They were aimed at the first contact with public performance and direct communication with media. Comic Lucija Čirović led them to the first practice of performing, theatre improvisation, and role playing, and therefore strengthened…

The project was managed by the Oloop Society Ljubljana and Humanitarian Charity Society UP from Jesenice. The project was partially financed by the EEA Financial Mechanism, Norway Financial Mechanism and the Municipality of Ljubljana.