About
the project
Atlas of Transitions – New Geographies for a Cross-Cultural Europe is the European cooperation project that promotes cross-cultural dialogue by bringing local communities closer together through culture and performing arts. The project looks at the potentialities arising from the contemporary migration phenomenon and seeks new ways of experiencing public space and the cohabitation of European citizens and newcomers through art,
- with the aim of countering radicalism and anxiety towards migration within society,
- by developing strategies of co-creation and interaction between citizens and migrants,
- with the participation of people with diverse cultural backgrounds in shared public spaces.
Atlas of Transitions paves the way for the promotion of interchanging geographies through various artistic practices, which always concern a dialogue based on reciprocity and interaction between citizens and newcomers.
In order to achieve this result, between 2017 and 2020 this project will promote workshops, creative productions, festivals, as well as academic research, thanks to the collaboration of cultural institutions and universities in seven European countries: Italy, Albania, Belgium, Poland, France, Greece, and Sweden.
Actions
Workshop and atelier
Participatory practices, workshops, territorial itineraries, urban mapping, and creative laboratories of thought: Atlas of Transitions combines a variety of workshops and ateliers in dance, music, visual and street-art, video reportage, and the exploration of urban spaces with the aim to create multicultural sites for the performance of collective creative works and common narratives. Through the work of artists from Europe and migrants’ countries of origin and with the involvement of citizens and newcomers, Atlas of Transitions intends to explore new creative ways of exchanging knowledge and experiences in traditional venues such as theatres and arts centres as well as in public spaces.
Production
Performances, video installations, documentary theatre, residences, and productions: the creative activities carried out during the three years of Atlas of Transitions are based on different production methods such as participatory practices with non-professionals and co-creation and artistic collaboration between European and non-European artists.
Such activities experiment and employ new creative strategies for the active participation of people with diverse backgrounds in art production.
Festival
Each of the seven partner countries involved in Atlas of Transitions will hold one or more editions of an international festival, which intends to promote the artistic works produced under the umbrella of the project and reinvent public spaces through the active participation of citizens and newcomers. In addition, during the festivals, public talks and panels of discussion will host academics and researchers, who will exchange practices and methodologies for the inclusion of newcomers. The venues of both the artistic and academic events will include traditional theatres and non-conventional places such as squares, neighbourhoods, and suburbs.
Action/research
The mission of Atlas of Transitions is supported by the involvement and cooperation of academic institutions and scholars from seven partner countries. Such a knowledge exchange aims to produce contents and analyses about the artistic practices and training tools that facilitate and promote the inclusion of migrants and refugees in local communities with distinct cultural frameworks. Together with the artists, scholars will document the use of performing arts in the creation of social spaces in which citizens and newcomers can cultivate rich human relationships.
Summer School
In the last semester of Atlas of Transitions, a Summer School will host teachers, social workers, and the artists performing in cross-cultural and migration-related contexts who intend to boost the practice of creative forms of active participation for social cohesion in their daily work. This training opportunity will represent the site where both academic research and the artists’ knowledge and experience gained during the three years of the project will be shared with a number of selected participants.
Web platform
This web platform, the webpages you are exploring and reading right now, collects reportages and reports about the artistic and academic work that will be produced for Atlas of Transitions. Based on this content, the web platform here aims to disseminate a variety of contents with distinctive foci, from the narration of artistic productions and news about upcoming events up to the research analysis about the creative practices facilitating the creation of intercultural meeting spaces for people with diverse cultural backgrounds.