Saturday Art Workshop: Folklore vs Contemporary Ornament / accompanying the exhibition Prague Pallas and Moravian Hellas – 1902: Auguste Rodin in Bohemia and in Moravia

During the art workshop, we will learn about the French sculptor Auguste Rodin, who visited Prague and South Moravia in 1902 and whose work influenced many Czech sculptors and the art scene of the time, which then began to be more oriented towards French art. We will take a closer look at the context of the time and, especially, introduce the accompanying programme that was prepared on the occasion of his visit to Bohemia. We will thus take a symbolic excursion into the past of 120 years ago. In our artistic reactions, we will be inspired by motifs from traditional folk culture, which A. Rodin encountered during his visit to Moravia and which made a strong impression on him. We will create designs for folk costumes and apply them directly on the reproductions of photographs of his sculptures. We will also explore the possibilities of shifting classic traditional ornamentation to contemporary decoration and design using mixed media and hand printing. A photographic studio will be set up in the studio of the GHMP Education Centre where participants will be able to get photographed in simplified and stylised costumes based on folk costumes. Loosely inspired by tradition, visitors will be able to design this costume themselves (by combining pre-made elements and attributes) or even wholly re-create it. We will create the models using large pieces of white fabric and paper, which will have various small cuts creating a symbolic illusion of the key element – lace. Using a data projector to create a large format projection, we will transfer the ornamentation onto the costumes and place the whole figure, by means of projection, into the atmosphere of historical photographs of the folklore environment of South Moravia visited by Auguste Rodin.