Intercult invited four socially engaged and changemaking women artists and practitioners to present the frame of their community building methodology.

Gülbeden Kulbay is a multi-artist working with Performance and Community-Art.

She introduced us her approach and her methodology using her personal story and experiences.

Based on this methodology she presents one of her works.

 

 

ALLBY Walk/Stadsvandring- A walk through personal storytelling  

ALLBY is a mission by Botkyrka Community theatre and dance – to create a walk in Alby- a place with beautiful and bright minds and nature. I was the project and artistic leader for this mission. My method in my working process as an artist is intuitive and in this community art-project I wanted to put the Alby people´s unique personal story as the source for this walk. The project name ALLBY is a wordplay where All with double L is everyone in Swedish and by is village, so everyones village.

 

Alby is the place I was born and raised. I felt happy and proud to make artistic work in my childhood place together with people who lives there. To make this walk I started by contacting the landlord for the room in the downtown of Alby where I could have a open art space as the meeting-point for this project. Colors and paint and chairs were the main interior. The room was attractive for young and adults. Curiosity and will took young people into the room and so did their parents. This studio was opened for three months and my interaction with people living in Alby could start. Time flied, we painted the floors, the walls and the roof with our personal stories. When it was a couple of weeks left to the walk to be experienced I started interviewing persons that could be interested in being guides in this walk.

The result was 4 walks were each walk had 4 different tourguides.

 

The walkers/visitors entered the studiospace and got each paper, pen and a chair.

They gather and sit around the guide who is sitting next to a canvas. The guide is talking and painting the house and the place where she/he lives. Continuing with answering question as:

 

-Where do you live?

-Where in Alby is your favourites place? Why?

-Is there any place that you never been?

-Is there any place in Alby that you don’t like? Why?

While the person answered the first question she/he painted the house they where living.

 

While the guide is talking about these places, the walkers writes up the places and the adress and the direction where these places are suited. This followed up with questions from walkers about the persons and the personal places.

When the first guide was finished with their story the walkers went to another part of the studio to meet another guide.

Each walk had three guides and we had 4 walks in total and each walk ended with a visit at one person that lived in Alby or actionpainting in the park performed by young people in Alby and me.

 

This type of walks made the people of Alby be more visible and take place in their own way with his/her personal story as the material for her/his art. The walker needed be more active both as the audience by asking questions but also by making the walk by using her/his imagination. The interaction became more participatory. In the end of walk every walker had a list of 12 places in Alby that they could physically visit whenever it suited them.

 

Photo credits: Robert Gyulavari