Rembrandts movie camera Erasmus Project

Project Title

Rembrandts movie camera

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The project idea arose during an Erasmus trip to Italy with children. While in Florence, we stumbled upon an exhibition that was showing a major retrospective by Bill Viola. The children were fascinated and we saw the potential of the Bill Viola Method for a future project. Bill Viola is one of the leading contemporary video artists and is internationally known. Among other things, he shoots short videos about paintings, he lets actors re-enact the scenes and so feels his way to the moments before and after the actual picture. These videos are shot in slow motion and without sound and offer the viewer the opportunity to deal with the interpretation of works of art in an action-oriented way.
We started the partner search via eTwinning but included one Italian and one Turkish school from the previous project. In the end, we were six schools from Germany, Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece,e, and Romania. The project application agreements were very binding and detailed, so that all participants got to know each other before the start of the project. The children and parents were also included in the planning. We decided for the name “Rembrandt’s Movie Camera” to make it clear that we will deal with paintings by the Old Masters and that this concern should take place through the cinematic discussion. We also established contacts with the museums in advance to ensure that this work with children is even possible.
The “Rembrandt’s Movie Camera” project started in September 2018. Erasmus groups were formed in the partner schools and the public was informed about the projec and its development over newspaper and social media platforms. The first teachers’ meeting took place in Istanbul. Here we had the opportunity to get to know each other personally. We dealt intensively with Bill Viola and explained our options for putting the subgoals into practice in the future.
In November each school set up an Erasmus wall newspaper, which was constantly updated. A logo competition was carried out in the individual schools and the first evaluation questionnaire was drawn up. The questions were then filled out online in the schools and the Greek partners collected and evaluated the results. In addition, each school produced a Powerpoint or a short film so that the pupils could get to know the partner schools virtually. Many children took part in these presentations, so a large number of children were involved in the project. The visit to Germany took place in November 2018. The work in Germany was very successful, because each partner school immediately started at home with the production of the short film “Our Artwork” using the Bill Viola method and made the results available to everyone on eTwinning.
The search for national old masters was not so easy in Romania and Bulgaria and broadened our view of European art history. In Schwerin we couldn’t find a Dürer or Grünewald either, but a Caspar Netscher, who could be found in the collection of Baroque painting. On May 9, 2019, on the schools celebrated the european day. Collages and drawings were made and the exchange of results via Skype and eTwinning brought the children closer together despite the
distances.
The third trip to Italy with students took place in April 2019. The Italian team even managed to get in touch with Bill Viola. Many partner schools have tried this and waited in vain for an answer. Now we had the appreciative answer from America.
The trip to Bulgaria in September has clearly shown that our method is successful. In the National Gallery in Sofia, through which the children would normally have strolled listlessly, groups spontaneously found each other to recreate the scenes in the paintings. All children knew the Bill Viola Method and were able to interact with one another in this way.
The corona pandemic forced us to cancel the following trips and we also had to cancel our graduation film on Rembrandt’s “Night Watch”. Schools remained closed and attempts were made everywhere to continue education with distance learning (homeschooling). This created a lot of problems, especially because not all children have the technical capabilities to zoom in, skype, or stay in touch on social media. Despite homeschooling, we were able to include another challenge in our program: Based on Bill Viola, the task should be mastered by the children at home alone or with the support of the family. The children were asked to choose a painting from a number of given examples or to look for a painting on the Internet. You should recreate this painting and, if possible, photograph it so that the image detail and lighting conditions come close to the original painting. The photos could be quickly exchanged via Whatsapp and initiated a small competition. So the children stayed in contact with each other despite the school being closed. The second
newsletter was also sent by email and kept all children, parents and teachers up to date.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 150110 Eur

Project Coordinator

Evangelische Schule “Dr. Eckart Schwerin” & Country: DE

Project Partners

• SCHOOL OF PALEKASTRO
• St. St. Cyril and Methodius
• Hasköy Ortaokulu
• Scoala Gimnaziala Numarul 5
• Istituto Comprensivo Don Aldo Mei