15 May EX.TRE.M transnational meeting in Brussels
Members of SMouTh’s educational team participated in the two-day meeting of the EX.TRE.M consortium that took place on 10 and 11 May, in Saint-Gilles (Brussels) in order to explore the intersections between migration, artistic expression and social inclusion.
The two-day event was designed as a forum for exchange and reflection, bringing together audiences, participants, artists and mediators with the aim of presenting tools for feedback and reflection on artistic experiences as tools for social inclusion and to create an international ecosystem around mediation practices in migration contexts.
The thematic developed around the following fields:
- Dreams
- Art & Construction of Meaning
- Plurilingualism
- Limits & Risks
- Feedback
- Reporting & Documentation
- Training & Education
The two-day meeting included:
- The lecture “How to remain radical while mediating”. EX.TRE.M participants, aged between 14 and 35 years old and from diverse migrant backgrounds, spearheaded this executive meeting to share their questions and aspirations regarding cultural mediation.
- The workshop on sharing practices – Worlding Picnic: inspired by the practice of picnics that is a central pillar of the DOM collective’s research
- Off-stage performance by Teatro Magro – Mantova (IT): a labyrinth of hidden truths using the mask as a tool. A performance born from an ongoing workshop with young people with a migrant background, always playing in a fragile balance where identity collapses and rebuilds its own narrative.
- Scene in progress (from Babel (IT) : a distant beach to which three brothers arrive by chance, at the mercy of the wind and the waters, on a journey with no stopover, no hope.
SMouTh contributes to the implementation of an innovative approach within the European project EX.TRE.M (EXcellence in TheaTre with Migrants) to use theatre as a tool for social inclusion and personal development for young people with a migrant background. As part of the project, SMouTh has been organising theatre workshops for young migrants since the beginning of the year, and in cooperation with the six other European cultural institutions in the partnership will produce a video/manual, an educational documentary and an excellence protocol. These products will be targeted at theatre companies and mainly at theatre and education professionals working with migrants who realise the need to upgrade their knowledge of theatre methodologies for the social integration of migrants and the creation of multicultural (theatrical) communities.
More information about EX.TRE.M’s work and actions can be found on the official website: https://www.extrem-project.eu/
Photos: Giannis Chatziantoniou