From the very beginning there has been groupwork at Retextil Foundation, but four years ago the number of the workers rose above thirty. In such a big group based on the law of large numbers, there will be people with very different personalities and temperament. The members of this group are changing from time to time, some people go to the open labor market, some choose another working place and new people get in the team. It is a legitimate question how a group like this can work smoothly, are there any conflicts and if so, does art help in the fight against exclusion?
The people with changed working abilities have different disabilities, some of them have organic diseases, some have physical disabilities, some have mental or psychologial problems. The retextil method gives the chance to everybody to play his or her part in the work and to master as many techniques as possible, to develop themselves in their own tempo.
In the bigger part of the year people work independently, they create furniture and different sitting and lying objects out of recycled textile. The person who makes the furniture cuts the fabric and creates the threads themselves. In these cases the group doesn’t work for a common goal so it can be more difficult to get on with it in a small place like ours. But regularly we get artistic, decoration or installation orders which mobilize the whole group and where teamwork and organisation is essential. These situations are great opportunity for team building, the people with different caracteristics have to collaborate for the common goal, for the common creation.
The consciousness, the clear and visible goals also help a lot in concentrated work, one can feel that the conflicts can be solved with less effort. During our project supported by the Norvay Grants we brought the retextil techniques to vulnerable families. Not only the power of art but also the positive feedback and the true happiness of the kids and parents helped us to keep the focus on our common goal and to reduce the inner tension of the group.
If you work for Retextil Foundation, you will have daily contact with many people. To some of them you will become attached instantly, for others you will need more time to learn to appreciate their values. But one thing is assured: the power of art, communal art, the humbleness you learn during the interdependence will bring people closer to each other, the thread will interweave and the web will withstand the test of time.
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