M.Y.O.M // Learning from: Make Your Own Masters

I am not critical of academia, I am critical about access to education, I can’t comment on the quality of education you get at university, I haven’t experienced it. Universities in the UK are so elitist, it is not about talent, it is about privilege. I come from an ex mining town, there is no access to art or education here, I want to create opportunities for young people look outside. It is not about having fun go a period of time, it is about seeing that it is possible to do something different for yourself.

People have to take control of their own stories /// Learning from: FREEDOM & BALANCE

Last week we met on zoom with André Anderson the headmaster of Freedom & Balance, a collective and experimental Art University based in North West London. The collective ambitious first project was to turn Chalkhill estate into a publishing house. Authors of the Estate is a powerful, self funded dream that inspired 22 writers to come together and publish a book in 12 weeks.

Shared Spaces across ages

While looking at the footage of the event we did in novembre at Lowry house in London: “shared spaces across ages” Ines came across a moment when Joy was talking about the communal living room and expressing her concerns. “Have you ever seen a brown ceiling, they have been saying for a long time that they were going to repaint the room and change the curtains but I am pretty sure this won’t happen before I die.” 

L’eau vient des maisons

Un mardi

On va finalement pouvoir régler le problème des eaux usées qui fuyaient dans la cour..

Des grands tubes traversent les 3 étages, 3 d’entre eux étaient cassés.

On s’était mis d’accord avec Am Mohamed le peintre, maçon, plombier… 

de tenter de les réparer.

Haya Bismillah

Every culture has its own relation to food, especially in Tunisia. Here we are famous for our spicy cuisine and incredible sense of hospitality. 

A: While El Warcha is known as a design studio, we are first and foremost a community connected by a love for many various things: OSB, orbital sanders, the Hafsia square, and sharing ... food! 

Un petit bateau sur l’eau

Du haut de l’immeuble du petit aziz on a toute la médina à nos pieds, en bas les habitué du café sont sur la place. Au loin c’est la mer qu’on imagine, une échappée. Le petit Aziz a fait un contrat avec Bassem, il allait l’aider à construire le bateau mais Bassem devrait l'emmener en ballade une fois que ca serait fini. Dans le quartier tout le monde vient nous voire, “c’est vrai que vous construisez un bateau? Vous allez ou?” Ils rigolent…

Staying in the game

What is the role of social media for the El Warcha project? What do we do with our Instagram, our Facebook, or our website? These have become extremely important questions in light of the Coronavirus worldwide quarantine and now that we have become so much more dependent on social media as our means of community engagement.

Warchachou

“How was your weekend?” - The workshop always starts with the morning coffee routine that is followed by checking on everyone and seeing if they had a good time during the days we haven’t been there. The conversation always takes a long time as this is the time that everyone ventilates about their issues or funny moments. I often put music on in the workshop to make things feel lighter and to brighten the mood . I believe that the time that we spent together having conversations, lunch and having cups of tea is a big part of our practice especially in this setting.

Dance steps

A couple is on stage and they must each make a certain number of dance steps punctuated by a sequence of text before finding themselves in the centre. The director couldn't figure it out. Wajdi decided to take it upon himself to find a solution. He measured the distance to be covered, the number of steps the actors had to take, and edited the text to synchronise the movement and the rhythm of the voices. After a few minutes of planning the scene could be played smoothly and it only needed a few more tries to be finalised.