Some more details and document about the project!!!
Description of the Idea
Our idea is to create an international Youth exchange, mixing 30 young people from Sweden, Portugal, Greece, Romania, Poland and Turkey. They all practice juggling, play music instruments, street art, dancing, or theatre. With them, we want to create and perform a living show about isolation. All the exchange and the performances are going to take place in Prespa.
Place
Prespa is situated in the North of Greece, in a cross border area, around 2 big lakes. These lakes are shared between Greece, Albania and FYR of Macedonia. The breathtaking landscapes and Balkan culture of the region are rather unknown. The area is very rural, as it is isolated by the mountains. High depopulation is causing problems to local development. The local community and especially the youth do not have access to many cultural activities.
Date and duration
The Action will take place between the 9th of July and the 21th of July. The overall project will last 13 days.
Participants
We are working with 6 non governmental organisations from Sweden, Portugal, Greece, Romania, Poland and Turkey. Each of them is going to send us 5 participants (4+1 leader) from their country in the age of 18-25 (up to 30 for the coordinator) to represent a specific cultural and traditional background.
All participants have experience in one of these fields: juggling, playing music instruments, street art, dancing, or theatre. They all have basic knowledge in English.
Programme and working methods
The action will be divided into 3 different stages:
- (during the first week) theoretical workshops on isolation and its origins as an introduction to the meaning of the caravan design
- (during the first week) artistic and cultural workshops as a way to discover themselves, to share experiences and skills and to create the caravan show.
- (during the last 4 days) moving performances on the roads of Prespa villages, to spread their results and provide several activities to the local community
During the first week, the participants will be taking part in workshops animated by experts, our organisation, and the local community. They will also have the opportunity to take the initiative to animate workshops for each other and the local youth. These activities are going to help them to create a living show that will be presented for the last 4 days, travelling all around the villages.
The main idea of the caravan is to build a moving artistic show performing on the roads of Prespa. The destination of each day will be a village centre where the final activities will take place.
Theme
Our theme is isolation: geographical, psychological, social, cultural… We want to face problems such as prejudices, lack of knowledge, barriers and misunderstanding that make isolation severe. The participants will have the opportunity to discover aspects of the life in Prespa and the other partner countries. The ideas and suggestions that will come up will be expressed by universal art language, and will be spread by the international participants and the local community during performances.
By creating the caravan, the participants will express themselves, share experiences and build a symbol of understanding and unity coming from differences.
