Lab 3 – History, Awareness and the Power of narrative
8 November 2022, 9.00-11.00 - Room 5 – Palais de l’Europe
Interpretation: EN/FR
Many events of the past, either by human intervention or the natural flow of time, often get forgotten, even erased from the collective memory. Similarly, many minority groups and their contributions to society get overlooked.These gaps can have devastating consequences and can be used to manipulate history and to build closed-minded communities.
How effective can storytelling be to impact awareness about forgotten historical events and forgotten communities? Is formal public education doing enough?
- Diminuer la taille du texte
- Augmenter la taille du texte
- Imprimer la page
Concrete Jungle. Where the trap sounds powerful, democracy struggles to grow – Shareradio
ITALY
Shareradio association aims to combine in its activities forms of citizen journalism, storytelling and media education, aimed at social change. Shareradio aims to support forms of social interaction by reducing processes of alienation of weak subjects in communities, offering a participatory and interactive approach to tell about oneself and one's territory, helping to activate paths of self-determination and social protagonism. The reportage is based on social issues and on the connection between the peripheries and urban cultures: the discomfort in the most hidden corners of cities is often compensated by the creative force of young artists and rappers who tell their difficulties, their dreams and their hatred of institutions. The aim is to underline the straightforward and direct approach of street culture combined with the gaze and perception of those who know little or do not know at all about the rise of trap in the European peripheries. Understanding a complex phenomenon such as music in the suburbs, with often violent and contemptuous contents, is the starting point for understanding the discomfort, entering it and using it as an element to flood the concept of democracy especially in problematic areas.
Presenter(s)
Marco GAROFALO
Photojournalist and Founder of Concrete Jungle
Italy
Born in Milan, 1976, Marco started to work in Photography 25 years ago. Today he works as a photojournalist concentrating on social and cultural issues mainly in Milan and throughout Africa, as well as architectural and personal research projects. He has been published and has showcased his photographs in several important Italian and European magazines, galleries and international photography events. Since 2017 he has been working on ENERGY PORTRAITS, an international long term project about energy poverty, showcased at Glasgow COP26. In 2022 he has started the multimedia project CONCRETE JUNGLE, whose protagonists are the young inhabitants of the peripheries of Europe, territories where democracy and legality no longer represent values to refer to in the search for one's own identity, supplanted by the trap and drill culture, a successful communication channel between peers but distant and deliberately elusive for all the others.
Tarikhi (Arabic for ‘My History’) - Sharq.Org
ARAB WORLD
Sharq.Org is a non-profit registered in Lebanon and Cyprus. It has over the past decade focused on enhancing pluralism and representation in the Arab region through initiatives related to media, culture and collaborative action. Sharq.Org runs three core programmes amongst them Tarikhi (Arabic for ‘my history’): centres around individual representation through the documentation and promotion of individual stories. Tarikhi encourages individuals to think critically by inviting them to reflect on and share their individual experiences. Over the past decade, Sharq.Org has documented hundreds of individual stories as told by people from diverse ethnic, religious, economic and social backgrounds in the Arab region. The stories have been packaged and presented within collections that relate to either broad themes (e.g. livelihoods in Lebanon) or specific events or periods of history (e.g. human rights abuses in Gaddafi’s Libya).
Presenter(s)
Reem MAGHRIBI
Head of the non-profit organization Sharq.Org
Libanon
Reem Maghribi is a social activist, communications professional, oral historian, gender specialist, proud mother, practicing poet and exhibited artist. Her research and much of her writing explore the nexus between conflict, displacement and belonging. She has roots in a number of Arab and European countries; some she was born with, others she planted during her many migrations. She currently resides in Larnaca, working as a UN consultant; practicing as a narrative, visual and performance artist; and running the non-profit organization Sharq.Org, which focuses on community building and story sharing.
Mankurt Dreams: The right for memory - Center Polis Asia
KYRGYZSTAN
Public Association Center Polis Asia is an independent and non-governmental organization, established in 2007 in Kyrgyzstan. The group of researchers started the Center as a research platform, that provide independent, relevant, and compelling analysis of the socio-political processes in the Central Asian region.
Mankurt is the one who lost his memory. His/Her memory was removed. He/She continues living, it seems that everything suits him/her. But when Mankurt sleeps, he/she sees the dreams. Subconscious mind sends him/her signs of the past. And gradually, Mankurt tries to understand who he/she is. Considering the metaphor “Mankurt Dreams” as a kind of post/de-colonial discourse of modern Central Asia through the prism of memory studies, we invite everyone to think about ourselves and our past through our initiative – Esimde (In my memory). Esimde is a discussion platform for studying and understanding the events, facts, processes and “blank pages” that remain in the history and memory of the people in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia.
Presenter(s)
Elmira NOGOIBAEVA
Founder of the School of Civic Education, Team Leader at Polis Asia, Founder of the Esimde platform
Kyrgyzstan
Elmira Nogoibaeva is the founder of the School of Civic Education, which later developed into the Academy of Civic Education, and the Esimde research and discussion platform. Since 2007, Elmira Nogoibaeva is a Team Leader of the Analytical Center "Polis Asia”, a research group working on questions of post-conflict events in the south of Kyrgyzstan and Identity of political parties of Kyrgyzstan. In the years between 2004 and 2008 she was a head of the editorial department and publishing department of the International Strategic Research Institute under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic. In 2010 Elmira Nogoibaeva worked as a national consultant within the "Risk Management Group" under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic. In 2018 Elmira founded the Esimde discussion platform, which's main goal is to promote a social shift in understanding the history and memory of Kyrgyz Republic during the period of XX-XXI centuries.
Mind the Gap - National Museums of World Culture (Statens Museer för Världskultur)
SWEDEN
WE ALL LIVE WITH A GAP! MIND THE GAP!
We are a creative programme led by the National Museums of World Culture (Sweden) to facilitate inclusion, equality, intercultural dialogue and active citizenship through digital storytelling and performance arts. We investigate how our daily life gaps can bring us closer to each other.
We create a safe dialogue space for ordinary people from different cultural and social backgrounds to reflect on gaps in our daily life and help individuals become more active citizens. We ask ourselves "can our gaps bring us closer to each other?" We work with ordinary people and young creatives who are willing to share their story about what is missing in their lives and the society at large. Our regional scope has been Europe and mainly the Middle East.
Presenter(s)
Rasha SHAABAN
Founder and producer for Mind the Gap
Egypt/Sweden
Rasha Shaaban is a local from Alexandria and Gothenburg. She is the founder and producer for Mind the Gap. She is working at the National Culture Museum as a projects manager and coordinator of the Anna Lindh Foundation network in Sweden. She believes in the magical power of storytelling to build human bridges between cultures.
Discussants are invited to take part in the Labs in order to share their experience with the presented democratic initiatives and try to bring broader perspectives to the following discussions.
Constantinos EFSTHATIOU
Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe-PACE
Cyrpus
Viktor SJÖSTRÖM
Youth Leader for the department of culture and leisure of the muncipality of Simrishamn
Sweden
Viktor Sjöström is a secondary school teacher of history and religion and he has a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Uppsala University. He presently works as youth leader for the Department of Culture and Leisure of the Municipality of Simrishamn, Sweden. Viktor is representing the More Than One Story project which together with the youth of Simrishamn created a unique card game designed to build bridges between people of all ages, backgrounds and cultures. The card game was first printed in 2012 and has been used by over 1,5 million people in over 30 languages thanks to partner organisations in Sweden and around the world.
Luna Lara LIBONI
Policy Officer, Irish Council for Civil Liberties
Luna Lara Liboni (she/her) is the Equality and Hate Crime Policy Officer of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. In this capacity, she coordinates the Coalition Against Hate Crime Ireland. She has previously worked in a wide range of roles with national and international civil society organisations (including the Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights and the Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration) and at the Council of Europe Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Unit. She holds an LL.M in International Human Rights from the Irish Centre for Human Rights and a Bachelor’s Degree in International Studies and European Institutions from the University of Milan.
Follow us on Facebook
