Balena Project

3 New Street, Erdington (the old Salvation Army Charity Shop)
Open Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 3pm. Free

Between 12 and 30 August, Ikon is running a tailor shop in the old Salvation Army charity shop at 3 New Street in Erdington town centre. Led by creative facilitator Jess Worley and members of the Erdington Arts Forum, the shop will be making small fabric whales designed by pupils from Erdington Hall Primary School in summer 2008.

The tailor’s shop is part of a major long-term art project, Balena Project, by Italian artist Claudia Losi (balena meaning whale in Italian). For a week in July, Losi worked with pupils and local residents from Erdington, undertaking creative research and producing a series of whale drawings. Over the course of three weeks, the tailor’s shop will produce nearly a hundred small whales, made faithfully to represent the drawings by the children.

The project culminates in the installation of Losi’s stunning artwork in central
Birmingham, Balena – a twenty-five metre whale made of two ton of grey wool fabrics – a life-size reproduction of the fin whale or common whale, the largest and fastest cetacean found in the Mediterranean. In September, the pupils from whose drawings the small whales have been made will bring their fabric creatures as a gift to the large whale.

The project arose from Losi’s awareness that even the highest peaks around her Italian home town of Piacenza were once covered by water in which whales swam, the traces of which are still evident today. Balena was created in 2002 and has since travelled the world, going as far as Ecuador, building a relationship with the community in each location.

Everyone is welcome to come along and participate in making the whales over the summer. Drop in and stay for as little or as long as you like. The shop is open from 11am – 3pm, Tuesday – Saturdays. Children must be accompanied by an adult at all times.

Supported by Llewellen Commercial Chartered Surveyors, The Italian Cultural Institute, Awards for All, Gulbenkian Foundation and Botto Giuseppe.