Voices from Greece

Dimitra Tsintsini, University of Thessaloniki, Greece

‘Video conferencing with students from South Africa has been a great experience. This exchange of ideas on culture through art is a strong link and of great potential for artistic development and inspired creativity between people from different cultures and nations. For me personally, art is a bridge that can give great results. I look forward to the next collaboration!’

Greece:

‘I would like to say that I found the online exchange with the students from South Africa exciting, as for the first time in my life I had such an experience. Seeing the work that the students had done with the albinism project opened up new horizons in that art can be a means of communicating awareness of social issues. The second meeting where we were able to show our stencils and see the ones that the students from Pretoria had created reinforced my initial feeling of how, even though we had different experiences and cultural backgrounds, art can be a facilitator and a powerful means of communication. I look forward to further such online meetings and seeing how all our individual stencils will unite in a single artwork.’

‘In our following meetings we examined the art works of the students from Pretoria and discussed the logistics of further collaboration on this project. Together with Dr Steyn, as instigators of the collaboration, and judging from the response we got from both sides (Pretoria and Thessaloniki), we believe that we have started a useful and meaningful dialogue, be it online for the time, owing to the extraordinary circumstances we are experiencing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Be that as it may, I would like to see a positive development already taking place now, or at least to explore the possibilities of such a development which in due time will lead to a regular exchange between our students.’