NEW YORK

Over the summer of 2002 Kiboko Projects held an intergenerational art workshop in New York City entitled twenty 02. Under the guidance of Mark Scheflen, the organization's Artistic Director, 20 participants were asked to document their lives for both Russian and African audiences, resulting in a collection of photo-diaries, hand-made masks and video interviews. Professional backgrounds were nearly as varied as ethnic backgrounds. Though many professional artists were included, most had no direct experience with mask-making or book-making and some participants had no prior artistic experience. For all, the workshop process led to experimentation with different media as well as self-exploration.

On video, Caleia Soumana explains how producing a photo-diary gave her the opportunity to reflect back on her family history as well as her personal experience growing up as an African-American in South Carolina before the Civil Rights Movement: "This diary brought a lot of memories back. This is a collection. Not only for other people but for myself. It's a history for me. .I didn't know that I could really do it. Then I just started writing. I'm dedicating this diary to my parents, Willie and Naomi Bush and my dear sister Wilnoa Posey. And I'm also doing a page on Maya Angelou's poem I Rise. 'Out of sadness, I rise.' Then I start telling my story." For Caleia, as for other participants, this project not only provided her with the opportunity to engage in self-reflection. It also gave her the opportunity to produce a finished object which will be used to establish communication with other people.

Similarly, painter Diane Talan explains how she used mask-making to address the impossibility of making art after 9/11, sending a direct personal message to Russian artists: "I had to make this mask a pirate. For the last couple of years I've been painting where I live on Chambers street which is only five blocks from the disaster of the World Trade towers. I spent years painting the world trade towers from a studio. I had a great view of them. Since September 11th I haven't felt like painting my neighborhood because it's kind of like a graveyard. I've done masks before so this opportunity came along to work in a medium I'm already familiar with. I jumped at it especially at the idea that it was going over to you artists in Russia. My grand-parents, all of them, came from Russia. So I wanted to say something to you about how I as an artist 5 blocks from Ground Zero feel about what happened. Something I can't really say in words but I can kind of say visually."

These statements made during the course of videotaped interviews highlight the importance of video in the workshop process. Mark Scheflen, Kiboko Projects' Artistic Director, has stated that he uses video "not only to document the art-making project but also to provide an additional means for participants to express themselves." Here they tell their stories directly to the camera and explain the significance of the project and what they hope will come of this. In twenty 02, participants learned how to use the camera in order to document work done by each other in the workshops and their urban environment. Like the other creative media used by Kiboko Projects video is used to establish communication beyond the group as well as within it.