SMouTh with sensitivity and experience is contributing to the partnership of the European project ImproLANDS ‘’Improvisational Theatre Techniques for Well-Being in Lands Affected by Natural Disasters, Depopulation and/or Solitude’’. ImproLANDS is a 22-month small-scale European Cooperation Project funded by the CreativeEurope Programme to shed light on four targeted inland areas across Europe. By bringing together four cultural organisations of different nationalities, the project aims to engage local communities and create cultural encounters through the methodology of improvisational theatre techniques.
Inspired by the operational principle of repairing and revitalising the social fabric of inner places in Europe, ImproLANDS, leverages the art of improvisational theatre as a powerful community builder and aggregator. While developing self-discovery and self-expression, improvisation has the unique ability to deepen connections and encourage people tap into wider emotions. As such, it meets people’s expressive needs to create something that individuals could never achieve alone.
European remote areas, often referred to also as innerlands, lonely places, out-of-this-world places, are characterised by profound disparities in terms of demographic trends, spatial organisation, access to essential services, employment, gender inclusiveness, and equal opportunities compared to urban centres. These unique structural challenges, intertwined with the ongoing economic and climate crises, have been exacerbated by the crippling impact of the Covid-19 crisis. To tackle this ongoing process of abandonment and degradation, the consortium partners have embraced the idea of using participatory arts to foster social inclusion and curb loneliness experienced by individuals, communities, and places in targeted remote areas.
Drawing inspiration from the binomial ‘nature-culture’ relationship, invoked by the Italian National Strategy for Internal Areas (SNAI) and the research Nuovi Sentieri di sviluppo per l’Appennino marchigiano dopo il sisma del 2016 (“New development paths for the Marche Apennines after the 2016 earthquake”), as a way to promote new local development trajectories, ImproLANDS project aims to shape collective experiences that positively connect people, the arts, and surrounding environments, whereby improvisational theatre constitutes the binding element for a newfound social cohesion and sense of belonging. By activating synergies among the EU’s sustainability goals, quality living spaces, and inclusive experimentation, it symbolises the partners’ commitment to contributing to the European Green Deal and the New Bauhaus movement. ImproLANDS is, therefore, to be read as an original place-bound initiative seeking to materialise the ‘leaving no territory and no one behind’ principles and ultimately convert “lonely places to places of opportunities,” based on a seminal study by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.
As supported by a plethora of evidence-based studies, in the post-pandemic world, the ‘healing’ power of cultural interventions actively engaging individuals in the creative process has become all the more prominent to improve their own health and well-being.
Members of ImproLANDS partnership:
Shoshin Theatre Association | Romania
For more information regarding ImproLANDS methodology and objectives, please visit the official website: https://improlands.eu/
