Author: CCErasmus

The Corviale Domani association has collaborated with the “Giardino in festa” association to organize two days of eco-sustainability activities for the Corviale community, as part of the European project “Climate + change through democracy and inclusion”. The event included workshops, debates and screenings to raise awareness on environmental issues. The community actively participated in the event and discussed various topics, sharing ideas for good practices.

On the first day, the community watched the documentary “God Save the Green,” which showed how urban green can bring people together and have a positive impact on their social and urban environment. The film presented six innovative approaches to self-produce healthy and nutritious food, emphasizing the important relationship between man and nature. After the screening, the community started a fruitful discussion, which led to the decision to create a small shared urban garden. 

The second day was dedicated to children, who participated in a stop motion workshop and produced a short film with a message of hope. This was followed by the screening of the animated film “Ainbo”, which deals with critical issues such as deforestation, exploitation of the earth and resources, and their devastating consequences on the planet. The film served as a metaphor for the wider problems facing our planet, including the risk of endangering the precious ecosystem and the survival of indigenous peoples. At the end of the evening, the children’s short film was screened, creating a sense of community cohesion and awareness.

Transnational encounter in Sofia / Bulgaria, May 2023

There is already a broad awareness of the problems of energy supply and foughts around the access to these resources. Less pronounced is that with regard to water. The project group therefore discussed the water situation in the cities of Athens, Berlin, Rome and Sofia, where the partner organisations are located.

The participants from Berlin-Marzahn also brought the topic to the stage and showed a performance consisting of video sequences, texts and gestures for “Gesundbrunnen” (healthy water), “Klärwerk” (waste water treatment plant), “Oase” (Oasis) and “Wellenreiter” (surfer). Afterwards, the audience was involved. In this way, a joint character image was created for “freshing” – which was refreshingly cheerful.

During a tour of one of the largest Roma neighbourhoods in Bulgaria, the guests got to talk to the residents. It became clear that and how the Roma are still discriminated against today. Their living conditions are also politically determined, for example by urban planning policies and water infrastructure: one tap for four houses. This is located outdoors. Especially in winter, water then has to be wasted.

The approximately 8000-year-old city of Sofia seems like a pearl that nevertheless hardly shines. (Not every pearl has to be beguiling.) Sofia is rich in mineral water and has several hot springs to offer. Strategically located, the city is a hinge between the Middle East and Central and South-Eastern Europe. The History Museum also houses objects that point to links with the matrifocal Danubian civilisation: Godness worship, the importance of fertility and others. Until the invasion of the Huns in the 5th century…

The participants were able to find many motifs for photographic impressions, which will be compiled in an exhibition. It will be opened in October 2023, when the participants will meet again. In Berlin.

Transnational encounter in Athens/Greece, September 2022

It was a ‘colourful’ group of 17 people from Sofia, Berlin, Rome and Athens who came together. They were volunteers, have fled to Europe from Afghanistan or Syria and/or cannot travel for other reasons due to a small purse.

The focus was on CO2 consumption by different means of transport. For this, the Greek colleagues distributed an overview with pictures of the underground, tram, bus, long-distance trains, airport, ship port and motorway. The question was: What is financed by companies, what by the state? Does this affect the quality of service? What possibilities are there to reduce CO2?

The result was astounding: In Greece, the intervention of the “Troika” in 2015 privatised much of the previously state-owned infrastructure. The German FRAPORT runs the lucrative airports, the port of Piraeus is 67% owned by a Chinese company, the management of the motorways and national roads is in private hands. Public transport in Athens, on the other hand, is financed by the city. As far as quality is concerned, no conclusions can be drawn about ownership. However, political control of CO2 reduction is made more difficult when a state cedes control to private parties, as the logic of profit maximisation is paramount with them.

Air pollution from cars was remarkable to the guests, as were the mini-oases and “pocket parks” in Athens to improve the air. They recorded their impressions in photos and videos – and learned to work with a padlet on this occasion.

Transnational encounter in Rome/Italy, June 2022

At the beginning of the workshop, the group came together through exercises on gestures and voices from independent theatre work. Together, the participants developed small choreographies on the theme of “energy“. In this way, the overall theme of climate+change was linked to the focal points of the encounter in Rome: Waste and “green” urban development.

In the area around the Via del Trullo on the periphery in the southwest of the city, the participants explored the works of art with Mario, the artist, poet and original inhabitant of the neighbourhood, which are the result of once illegal actions to beautify the neighbourhood. Various other initiatives by residents made clear how self-organisation can promote solidarity and, for example, transform a courtyard society into a veritable bio-sociotope. In discussions with architects and in the open field, the focus was also on how residents can make abandoned land fertile. “Urban gardening” is the key word, apparently all over Europe.

A few kilometres further and also in contrast to the cultural metropolis of the city centre, the group visited the “snake building” in Rome-Corviale. They gained impressions of a place that holds many potentials and yet still struggles with the sins of technocratic-fixated thinking.

“I felt younger. That’s the solution – meeting different people.” “We do ours. We are Rome. Not them in the city.” Voices of two residents.

Climate change is a word that is now on everyone’s lips. It provokes emotions and is hardly missing from any political statement. This can create a paradox: a word becomes an empty phrase. This is one of the reasons why Christoph Mayer’s lively transmission of knowledge, called a lecture, was so well received at our workshop from 24th to 28th September 2021. It was about the characteristics of global warming, the burning of fossil fuels as a central cause for it, the often underestimated methane as well as the political possibilities to deal with all the problems – in principle.

For five days, the colleagues from Sofia, Athens, Rome and Berlin tested adult education methods to make the topic of climate change in all its complexity the subject of their work. Together, they overcame the (inner) burden of producing videos for our online course, tried out forum theatre, discussed the Popular Opinion Leader method, playfully explored the pros and cons of climate protection policy, and explored in an authentic place how people can unite and do something for the city’s climate and their own salad plate. For example, through urban gardening. At the same time, the shared inspirations and didactic approaches stimulated many new questions. That’s education…

Climate change on stage: Short video of Forum theatre scenes developed during our workshop in Berlin from 24th to 28th September 2021. A topic as abstract as climate change needs a concrete conflict in order to realise it theatrically and to link it to the citizens’ lives. The group had agreed on two. One was the treatment of flood victims and the violence that can come from bureaucracy. The other was the conflict between dredger drivers and climate activists.

Forum theatre has the charm that people from the audience can play along and give the scene a new direction. And what is possible on stage, namely to try out different ways of playing with reality, can also be done in ‘real life’. To change social reality with theatre was the goal of Augusto Boal, the inventor of Forum theatre. This can visibly also go hand in hand with joy. The conversations after the performances were also intense and moving.