England, Romania
Three mountainous areas work together to empower their communities • Words Martin Clark • Photographs Luke Bryant (UK), Martin Clark (UK, Romania),
Catalin Ilea (Romania), Christos Christou (Styling Romania).
The ‘empowering communities’ action in Cumbria included a fashion show at the ‘Boot & Shoe’ pub in Greystoke. Maria Vassilou from Kato Drys in Cyprus wears a vintage dress ©Luke Bryant
The ‘Green Village’ project believes that rural communities must be empowered if Europe’s countryside is to be brought back to life. Following on from a very successful ‘Empowering Communities’ action in Cyprus in 2011, we decided to make ‘fashion’ a vehicle for getting local people to work together in 2012. When traditional skills – usually known to older people, and fashion come together, the results can be startling in their level of creativity but also the lesson given in terms of rural sustainability.
Cumbria is England’s mountainous county and is a good partner for Bulgaria’s Devetaki Plateau, Romania’s Apuseni mountains and the mountainous region around Kato Drys in Cyprus; they have a lot in common – all four areas are beautiful for their breathtaking vistas but all are losing their young people and the cultural landscape (that took centuries of endeavor to create) is beginning to breakdown. To keep young people, we need jobs – in villages and in provincial towns. In the summer of 2012 we ran actions in Alba Iulia in Romania and Aspatria in Cumbria; they both enjoy a rich culture and history but need to move forward in a positive way. Alba Iulia was a Dacian town before the Romans conquered it and it became an important trading centre with gold (from the Apuseni mountains) making it rich. Aspatria was a Viking town that grew into an important centre for farming and dairy production, some say it was the birthplace of St. Patrick, it certainly has an air of Medieval mystery. This is a short story of what we did. 12 I Green Village
England, Romania In Aspatria and the nearby village of Plumbland, Bulgarian, Cypriot and Romanian project staff and young people came together with local Cumbrians to ‘re-live the 1950’s’. We chose this decade for a number of reasons…. In the UK it was Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee (60 years on the throne) in 2012, so the 1950’s were in everybody’s mind. Also the 50’s were a time of great hope and emerging confidence after Europe’s disastrous war plus a time when fashion exploded, women were more empowered ….but there was still a good amount of the ‘make-do-and-mend’ mentality (food rationing finished in 1954). In short, the 50’s were a positive and sustainable time and offered a good theme for empowering communities and teaching lessons about sustainable lifestyles. Also, we must not forget that communities were tighter and less mobile, leaving the region for work was a rarity, so communities remained more intact. Families were also closer, with old people normally living with their children rather than going into retirement homes. All this closeness made the transferring of skills easier and knitting, sewing, crochet, even spinning wool, were all common pastimes.
Communities working together- sustainable (1950’s-style) meals in Plumbland village hall and local ladies from the Craft Club doing
spinning and knitting ©Martin clark
Clutching their ration books the Bulgarian, Cypriot, Romanian and British group descend on Aspatria to explore the food available in 1953. Shopkeeper Billy Bouch enters into the spirit of the re-enactment. ©Martin clark
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In Cumbria, Green Village focused on ‘hats’ and ‘rationing’ as well as the vintage clothing revival. Christopher researched, with the help of older villagers about Plumbland’s sustainable village hall. He made a presentation to the international audience and told about the insulation made from local sheep’s wool, the photovoltaic panels, the air-source heat pump system – even the double glazing, re-cycled kitchen and under-floor heating – all this will feature in a later issue of our magazine. Where did you get that hat? Diana Daian from Romania & Christopher Gray from Cumbria ©Martin clark
The lessons learned from the ‘empowering communities’ action in Cumbria were numerous and we believe can be transferred to other European countries through training material that Green Village will produce in the spring of 2013. We believe that….
• Selecting a comparatively recent (like the 1950’s) historical period to re-enact, helps older (who were children or teenagers then) and younger villagers to interact – 2012 was the ‘International ear of Inter-generational Learning’, so this was more in everybody’s mind. • Fashion, especially current fashion – the 1950’s look is back in vogue – draws the interest of young people and the vintage element helps the older people to relate to it as well. • Creating something together, out of recycled materials – like the hats, is fun, very visual, quite competitive but also gives a lesson about re-using materials. • Bringing in a serious discussion on environmental sustainability – like Chris Gray’s ‘sustainable village hall’, helps the participants see the contemporary relevance of what we do in the fun part. • The notion of ‘rationing’ is important – we do waste materials – especially food; our ancestors were more careful and we could be careful as well. Food security will certainly be an issue for Europe in the future. • The countryside is a good place to have fun, work together and learn. • Involving local people with incoming Europeans from other states adds a spark of interest for them – they think…. “if these people came all the way from Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus, it must be important; we should listen to them”
Tom Cowgill from Threapland is a leader in the community. He is telling international visitors a graphic ghost story and standing by a ‘ceramic map’ of the parish, with each tile made by a local child. ©Martin clark 14 I Green Village
England, Romania In Romania’s Alba Iulia, the 1950’s were a rather different thing. As the war ended, Romania, a former Axis member, fighting with the Germans, was occupied by the Soviet Union, an Allied member and they dealt with the people in a heavy-handed way. In 1947, King Michael was forced to abdicate and the People’s Republic of Romania was declared. There followed some harsh years of Soviet control and the payment of war reparations but the 1950s saw Romania’s communist government gaining some independence. An example of the power of the state was shown in the way they secured the withdrawal of all Soviet troops from Romania by 1958. In Alba Iulia the theme was about recycling and creating beautiful garments from waste and everyday products like paper and plastic – with a rather awe-inspiring ruined communistic factory as the venue for a hard-hitting photoshoot.
Diana Daian (right) took part in both actions. She studies fashion in Cluj Napoica and took a lead role in organizing the action, with each person designing and creating something of their own. Photographer Catalin Ilea took a series of fantastic pictures that used the contrast, derelict character and special light of the setting. We wanted to show a bright new generation of Europeans emerging from a rather grim industrial past with new ideas, inventiveness and a modern take on design.
©Catalin Ilea
Top Cypriot model, Marina Filippou and stylist Christos Christou teamed up to show a range of garments created from waste plastic & beer cans that combined colour and texture to good effect.
Marina intuitively understood the concept of confident young people with new ideas and skills merged with an appreciation of sustainability. Seen here emerging from a grim industrial past to breathe new life into villages and provincial towns. ©Catalin Ilea
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England, Romania Stylist, Christos Christou sets up a shot in an open stairwell of the ruined factory. He was inspired by the old factory site, telling how he had tried to find such a venue in Cyprus for some years. Now that Christos and Marina met with their counterparts from Bulgaria, Romania and the UK, they look forward to promoting the work of Green Village back in Cyprus. The team for the derelict factory shoot included some bright new names in European fashion and design. Through the Green Village Work Package ‘Learning by Doing’, four young ladies took developed a range of environmental skills.
©Catalin Ilea
Environmental damage is a worldwide problem of course, so it was good to have Emi from Japan on board for the Empowering Communities action in Romania. Emi had some interesting comments: “I got a lot of ideas for textiles through my internship. The aim was to learn sustainability through tradition and culture in Romania. I think a lot of problems have happened though globalization. Life has been changing from small social such as village to international”. Grampus Heritage follows the ethos that young designers and makers should have the chance to personally show their work to a wide audience. Martin Clark expands the idea:”art and design, including fashion’ can give very strong messages about environmental and cultural sustainainabilty. For empowering people, even whole communities, it is so good to create something and have it genuinely appreciated” ■
Sarah Colson with ‘wolf motif’ roof tiles; these were converted to ‘street jewelry’ in Emi Fugisawa’s fantastic knitted plastic and string creation. ©Martin clark
©Catalin Ilea
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©Catalin Ilea
England, Romania Lua Vollaard from the Netherlands worked to good effect with plastic and paper: “the summer in Romania was so very informative and wonderful, it was something that’ll inform my practice for years”. Sarah’s crepe creation – bright re-birth from the grey ruined factory.
Lua in a green crepe paper
Marina Larisa and Botas Alexandra from Romania in Lua’s ‘gas-pipe’ plastic garments.
Chantelle Matthews (right) used circuit boards from discarded calculators, wire and bin-bags. Chantelle felt strongly about the skills available in Romanian villages: “its important to educate the producers so they realise their skills are individual, appreciated and worth holding on to – this in turn will hopefully lead to them educating each new generation. They don’t know how keen young people could be to learn” ■
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