About the part that art plays in a globalising society

Framer Framed

Anastasia Afonina

How is the discourse of Framer Framed connected to your own field of interest/study or (art) practice?

I moved to the Netherlands for my studying program in the Gerrit Rietveld Academie. 2 years ago I graduated from the Audio-Visual Department. My department was very open to all the different art practices, starting from bookmaking and ending with movie production. What I find extremely nice about Framer Framed is that it seems to me as a very open and friendly to different types of media too; video works, paintings, performances, sculptures, etc.

HasĀ FramerĀ FramedĀ inspired you to do, look at or engage differently in certain things?

Definitely! I think I am very lucky to be part of FramerFramed and kinderatelier.
One of the most inspiring things is to see how other young people make their own researches and exciting discoveries, following their intuition and fantasy, instead of basing their art works on somebody’s else rules. I think, it is very important for adults to see it too and to learn how to stay as open-minded, creative and free as kids.

Would you share with us a memory, which took place atĀ FramerĀ Framed, that makes you smile or laugh even now?

Some time ago I was invited to host the kinderatelier in Framer Framed. I found this project incredibly lovely. I was very enthusiastic to finally start working with kids, but also quite scared because of my poor knowledge of the Dutch language. Frankly, I am not really good at learning languages. However, I decided thatĀ  kinderatelier might become a great chance for me to finally break the language barrier and learn Dutch.

During my first class I started writing down all the new Dutch words I have heard from kids of around me. I was also repeating them out loud in order to remember them better and impress everyone with my new cool vocabulary. I felt quite proud of myself that day and started to believe in my abilities to pass the Dutch exam in a nearest future. What happened next still makes me laugh. I tried to use some of my new words in public and faced the brutal reality: my new Dutch vocabulary, the one I was so proud of (!!!), mostly consisted of the made-up words, created by 4-5 years old kids.

What kind of content would you like to see online byĀ FramerĀ FramedĀ during this pandemic?

It would be lovely to see some online lectures regarding contemporary art, live stream of theatre plays and etc. I think it would be also nice to get to know more about ways of creative people to with the quarantine time and etc.

Anastasia Afonina was interviewed by Redouane Amine. We would like to thank them both for this lovely interview.


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