Education workshop Body Language: A Story Told by Hands

Visit the exhibition You Are Variations by Anchan/Anna Daučíková and Christina Della Giustina with your class and discover how hands can tell an entire story!

Anchan/Anna Daučíková and Christina Della Giustina met in the 1990s, when Daučíková was an artist-in-residence in Zurich at a place where Della Giustina was working as a curator. When they shook hands, they both felt an “electric handshake,” which marked the beginning of a long-lasting relationship, friendship, and artistic collaboration. From that very first moment, both artists sensed that this was a special encounter, and they would influence each other for decades to come. You Are Variations is the first duo exhibition by Daučíková and Della Giustina in the Netherlands.

Each month, a new variation of the exhibition is presented. Works change form: they appear as projections at the back of the space, on CRT monitors, or as prints. In this way, the exhibition follows the different forms in which the artworks exist within the artists’ archives.

In the collaborative works of Daučíková and Della Giustina, hands and mouths, words and water, glass and stones, and speaking characters come together in the Vleeshal to form a vibrant body language. The hand that made the first encounter so meaningful through an “electric handshake” is the starting point of this educational workshop.

During the workshop Body Language: A Story Told by Hands, students are guided through the exhibition. It consists of videos and performances shown on monitors and a large screen, as well as prints, projections, and installations. The exhibition takes visitors back to the 1990s, to the meeting of the two artists from Czechoslovakia and Switzerland shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall—a time of major change.

Together with the educator, the children observe the artworks and reflect on how the artists tell stories without using words. They discuss what they see, feel, and think, and then imagine how they themselves might tell a story without words.

After the interactive tour, the students begin telling their own stories using their hands. In the workshop, they learn to create a costume for their hand using wire and cables, helping them tell a story about themselves. They are introduced to a new material and reflect on how the use of certain colours can support their storytelling. In this way, they create their own “electric handshake,” symbolising the beginning of the special things they will do, the changes they will go through, and the important friendships they will form.

Finally, a record is made of the story the students tell with their hands: a print that combines the costume and the symbolism of a hand gesture with documentation and a captured moment.

The prints will be exhibited during the Children’s Art Exhibition at the Vleeshal on March 22 from 11am to 1pm. Children will then have the opportunity to show their work to family and friends.

Events

22 March

Kinderkunsttentoonstelling

10 am – 12 pm