Co-Creating Workshop: The leading thread. With Lilit Stepanyan

This workshop invites community members to participate in a creative process that involves writing and knitting to express their memories and feelings about the city of Mont-Dauphin and its surroundings. The participants will contribute their personal memories on textiles, creating a collective artwork that captures the essence of the area. This collaborative work aims to document individual experiences and build a shared memory of Mont-Dauphin, emphasizing the significance of personal narratives in shaping the identity and history of a place. The workshop invites the participants to engage in the process of creating, knitting, and mapping the connecting thread that represents their memories and words about Mont-Dauphin and their surroundings. By using both writing and knitting as mediums of expression, participants can visually and textually document their experiences, emotions, and perceptions of the city.

 Pariahs' intervention aims to uncover these connecting threads across Europe so far and to synthesize the thematic and aesthetic of how marginal stories form centers and places in forbidding and difficult times. Through a comparative lens, participants can draw parallels between their memories of Mont-Dauphin and the larger tapestry of interconnected narratives that define our shared cultural heritage. Join us on the 24th of February and co-create with Lilit Stepanyan the collective artwork of our memories. Take that thread, pen, or memory item (photos) and join the workshop to document your personal memories on textiles, build the collective memory of the city, and participate in this creative process.

Lilit Stepanyan is a multidisciplinary artist working with drawing, installation, video art, moving images, text, and poetry. She explores themes of community, memory, and environmental issues in her practice, often taking a direct and unapologetic approach. Lilit has a particular interest in working with rural communities and ecological memories. She founded and is currently curating the Eco Art Residency and Rural Art Residency Armenia programs, which aim to emphasize the importance of ecological crises and bridge the gap between humanity and nature. Lilit involves community members in the creative process of her works, hence creating collaboration and co-creation of artworks that reflect the image of each community. She has exhibited her works in numerous countries around the world, including Armenia, China, Germany, the UK, Norway, Cyprus, and Australia. More: www.lilitstepanyan.com

The workshop will take place at Pavillon de la Danse, Embrun, France, on February 24th, at 5:00 PM.  The workshop is part of the artists in residency program in France, within the framework of the project #Pariahs: Performing Europe's Historical Memory,' which is funded by the Creative Europe programme .