Mobility 5 in Mortefontaine: Blog




Monday


On the first day of our Erasmus+ Mobility, all the participants met at school where Monsieur Bernard, the Headmaster, welcomed us. Then Madame Norris and the Saint-Dominique pupils told us about the French Art Nouveau artists who had worked in the area around Mortefontaine.

Next, we travelled to Paris where we were divided into three groups and we set out to explore the Art Nouveau heritage of the city.


   

Our group visited the 7th Arrondissement where one can still see many Art Nouveau house façades and heavily decorated doorways. After a forty-five minute lunch break we went to the Galeries Lafayette department store with its impressive Art Nouveau glass dome. There are lots of famous shops in the store.


   
   

Our last stop was at Maxim's Art Nouveau Collection, a private museum and world-famous restaurant. The guide told us many lots of interesting facts and stories about the numerous exhibits. The other groups visited Art Nouveau sites in different parts of Paris but we all had the chance to visit Maxim's.

After the tour we returned to school and were met by our hosts' parents and then we spent the evening together with our French families.

Martin Bablok und Constantin Pudlik

Tuesday


The first workshops took place today. We participated in workshops on stained glass, plasterwork and film, all based on the theme of Art Nouveau.

We participated in the film workshop. In groups, we wrote a screenplay which we will film over the next few days. The group members came from different countries and this helped us to get to know people from the other schools quickly. Our creativity therefore knew no boundaries. They ranged from a story about friendship between a girl and a pig to a murder story. Everything was there. The ideas were developed and scripts written.

   

In the sculpture workshop we made models from clay and in the glass workshop we made cartoons which would be turned into stained glass windows. Monsieur Latour, an artist who makes and restores church windows, showed us techniques for cutting glass.
   
   

After lunch we attended a lecture given by Professor Bodon from the Sam Houston State University about the development of cinema and then we watched Woody Allen's ‚Midnight in Paris'. Many scenes are set in Art Nouveau Paris.


At the end of a very busy day we rehearsed for our Flash Mob before going home to spend the evening with our host families.


Merle Rudke und Lina Höch

Wednesday

Today we continued our workshops from yesterday. In the Sculpture workshop, we created designs from clay. We then poured plaster over these designs and left the plaster to harden. We removed the clay from the plaster moulds and replaced the clay with plaster. This morning, we broke the plaster moulds and this gave us our final plaster design which we then painted. As we were waiting for the plaster to dry we made another sculpture out of styrofoam.

   

In the stained glass workshop we followed our patterns to make windows from the individual pieces of cut stained glass. In the film workshop we used our storyboards to help us to film scenes from in the park.

   
 

In the afternoon, there were more workshops. In one, we made jewellery from wood and mother of pearl. In another, we worked with linocuts and in a third we learned how to make glass beads and we turned these into jewellery.

  
   
   

At the end of the afternoon, we practised our Flash Mob for Friday.


We spent the evenings with our host families. We enjoyed working together with students from other countries and making small pieces of artwork together

.

Hannah Schieferstein und Annika Nitschke



Thursday

 

Today was the last time we had our morning workshops and we had to complete our projects. In the Glass Workshop, we had to assemble our pieces of coloured glass using solder to join the glass pieces. In the Film Workshop, we made our montages from the scenes we shot yesterday and in the Sculpture Workshop we removed our plasterwork from our moulds.

  
   

After our lunchbreak the afternoon workshops continued. The Lino cutters completed their Art Nouveau inspired designs, carved out negative space and then made their prints.

   

In the Glass Workship we made pieces of jewellery from glass. First of all, we decided which colours of glass to use to make the beads we had designed. Then, assisted by a skilled glassblower, we made our own beads. We had to melt the glass and wind it round a metal rod. Once the glass had cooled, we could remove the bead from the rod and admire our handiwork.

The group working with mother-of-pearl and wood continued with their work from the day before.

At the end of the day, we had our final Flash Mob rehearsal. Practising with people from other countries was really good fun.

We spent the evening with our host families again.


Janina Budde und Hannah Laarmann



Friday


Friday, 30th September, was our last full day in France. In the morning, the pupils from our six partner schools were introduced to the Saint-Dominique pupils at their assembly. Then we all set off for the Trocadero in Paris in two coaches to where we performed our Flash Mob. It was a total success.

   ;

The Flash Mob was performed to the rock version of Beethoven's ‚Ode to Joy'. Each country presented a dance which they had choreographed and this was followed by a joint performance by the whole group. At the end, two dancers from the French school danced a duet very professionally. It was a wonderful shared experience.

After our lunchbreak at the Trocadero, we had a boat trip on the River Seine. During the trip we sailed past the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. Then we took the coach back to school were our works of art had been laid out on display. After the exhibition, Monsieur Bernard, the Headmaster, gave a farewell speech and handed out our Certificates of Participation.

   
   

There was a lively party.
Blog in French

Fiona Willeke und Magdalena Wagner