MOULDS, BODIES AND MASKS

Artist: Ixone Sádaba
Class: 5th and 6th grade students
Related themes: Identity and coexistence
Mediums: Painting, sculpture, and photography
Teacher: Lidia Salazar
Soloarte School, Basauri
Materials: paper, camera, silicone molds, recycled materials like cardboard, cups, and bottle tops

5th and 6th grade students from Solarte worked with artist Ixone Sádaba in a number of workshops that set out to express questions related to identity through images and objects. Once the educators have identified the objectives to be reached and the attitudes and skills to be consolidated, the Museum artist designs a series of workshops and activities. Therefore, each project is unique and personalized, as it is specifically conceived to develop the skills and areas of knowledge determined by the teacher. Identity, psychomotricity, and interrelations in this small group of students are topics that arose during the workshops. In the classroom, collaboration between the teachers and the artists is essential: they each support the work of the other, generating a space of trust. The artists have the essential mission of encouraging dialogue and the work of the schoolchildren, relating the concept of artistic creation to the specific topics on the curriculum. However, the real stars of this adventure are undoubtedly the students with their never-ending ability to be surprised, their illusion, and their energy. With Ixone, the kids discovered many portraits in two and three dimensions, from different periods and styles of the history of art to create their own self-portraits: sculptures of part of their bodies made out of silicone molds and imaginary portraits (masks made out of found objects). On the way, they discovered the pleasure of finding their own responses and of producing unique and unrepeatable objects; by working on their own identity through the objects, they also developed their self-awareness.