Slovak for asylum seekers

2010, animation, 10'25”

Project is based on the collaboration with the asylum seekers living in the refugee camp in Rohovce to create animation about their situation in Slovakia. The structure of animation is based on the lessons of Slovak language because it's one of the primary problems for refugees to be able to communicate in the new country. The grammar lessons are adapted according to the texts and conversations with the inhabitants of the camp. As the grammar lessons become more and more difficult, it shows also their difficulties in the everyday life of refugee.

The way of involving the refugees to participate in the project had the form of regular “creative workshops“ once a week in the camp in Rohovce. We talked together about some common theme of their life in the camp, in Slovakia or in their native country. The immigrants were asked to create short texts or drawings, bring their photos or to express their feelings in Slovakia. It was forbidden to make photos or videos in the area of the camp what was one of the reasons why the final form was drawing animation. Another explanation of the manual work needed to create drawings is that it ressembles to the situation of immigrants when the only working possibilities for them are just hard manual labours. The number of refugees living in the camp is very unstable because they were leaving the camp unpredictably and often new refugees were coming. Because of that most of the participants were involved in the project just during some period.

Project was presented in the gallery space as the projection of animation and the working table with all the drawings and texts. The asylum seekers were presented in the gallery during all the time of the exhibition. We continued to talk, draw and write in the gallery as before in the camp, so the visitors could join us and talk with the refugees. The material created in the gallery was added to the animation afterwards, so it's supposed to be longer and more complex after every presentation.