Florence, February 22nd – around 8 o’clock, the city is already buzzing with traffic, people busily commuting to their work. A few people know that, but for the next 10 days, the city centre will not be the busiest place in the city, no matter what those who were stuck in the morning traffic will tell you.
No, the place in Florence bustling with more energy during those days was the PARC Performing Arts Research Centre, where 31 young people from Austria, Germany, Greece, Hungary and Italy came together for the latest transnational projects of the ROOTS & ROUTES International Network: Re-designing Wor(l)ds and OASES.
The topics of Re-designing Wor(l)ds revolve on reflecting on common issues and concerns of young artists today regarding the demands of digital transition that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated. It was the second and most recent pilot project of OASES partnership, and the participants sat together every day to work and on how to remain part of a world that’s constantly shifting towards the digital, without losing their sense of belonging.
All it takes is expressing and communicating this primal and relevant issue out into the world.
Now you’re seeing why PARC was the “busiest” place in Florence for 10 days?
The everyday workshops included multiple activities between movement, sound and visual art, moments of group creation. Upon completion, the project’s results went on stage, available to the public in the spaces of PARC, giving some more credit to the work of the participants.
Re-designing Wor(l)ds is the second of the six pilot projects of OASES for Change. Organising Artistic Self-Empowerment Spaces (2021 –2023), a series of projects that will continue enhancing the skills and experiences of artists, youth workers and the public’s caringly and with attention to the details of our time.
The OASES project develops and experiments good practices for the organisation of spaces and contexts suitable for offering the most favourable conditions for the development of the creative and artistic potential of young people, and for the creation of art works born from international exchange and collaboration on shared topics.
OASES is coordinated by ROOTS & ROUTES Cologne e. V. Partner organisations are Blues Derneği (Istanbul/Turkey), Centro di Creazione e Cultura (Florence/Italy), Empreinte (Lille/France), Kaunas Cultural Centre of Various Nations (Kaunas/Lithuania), Royal Court Liverpool (UK), Stichting Lloydscompany (Rotterdam/the Netherlands), Street Dance Center (Salzburg/Austria), SMouTh – Synergy of Music Theatre (Larissa/Greece) and Subjective Values Foundation (Budapest/Hungary)
Re-designing Wor(l)ds is the second of the six pilot projects of OASES for Change. Organising Artistic Self-Empowerment Spaces (2021 –2023), a series of projects that will continue enhancing the skills and experiences of artists, youth workers and the public’s caringly and with attention to the details of our time.