Digital Arts and Stop Motion Workshop for The Explorers Album project in Leipzig
A Digital Arts and Stop Motion Workshop was curated by Elham Khattab and presented by Egyptian artist Mostafa Elbana within the framework of The Explorer's Album exhibition at Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst (GFZK). The aim was to encourage children to discover their city through artistic and digital mediums, as well as foster international cultural exchange. Elbana led a group of children aged 10 -11 from Hort des Evangelischen Schulzentrums Leipzig to produce their own stop motion films, reflecting on the importance of the city from their own subjective points of view.
The Explorer's Album exhibition was held with works by children in Leipzig to celebrate the 1000th year anniversary of Leipzig City. Art mediators from the GFZK took children on guided field trips to explore areas they love around the city and discover new, unexpected places, collecting material that was later displayed in the exhibition.
The workshop included a guided tour of The Explorer's Album exhibition, in addition to numerous film screenings followed by engaging discussions about animation and stop motion and learning to identify the different techniques. The children took turns shooting each other and learned how to deal with the camera to create their sequences. Elbana also introduced them to the process of creating a storyboard and helped them use that in the context of their relationship to the city, the material they collected on their trips, and what they wanted to share about it. Some children chose to highlight their friendships, others chose animals from the Zoo, while some chose historical places. On the last day of the workshop, we held a presentation for the children’s film combining all their work, as well as their storyboards and sketches, in parallel to the Explorer's Album showcase.
The workshop exchange was funded by the Goethe Institute and the GFZK, extending a partnership that was developed in the arts mediation project in Cairo and Alexandria.