ALFinMOTION - Mobility Programme - Seventh Edition
ALF Hands-On: Open Call for Participation! - Second Cycle Round 2
Mediterranean Youth in Action Programme (Transformative Youth in Action)
In this diploma thesis, we focus on the reconceptualisation of politics and on the analysis of the relationship between art and politics based on the concept of infrapolitics, which helps us establish art as an everyday form of resistance. With...
For the first time, the city of Ptuj in Northeastern Slovenia celebrated “the Mediterranean day” on 28.11.2022 as part of the Anna Lindh Foundation “Celebrating the Mediterranean”.
We are delighted that we hosted such an important celebration in Ptuj, aiming for a more inclusive and decentralised approach to celebrations and important events to take place equally in cities with fewer opportunities.
The Povod institute co-organized the concert in cooperation with Bodi centre, the Municipality of Ptuj and the outstanding musicians: Ali R Taha and Mahmoud Al-Khatib, and the musical school: INSTRUMENTAL.KO, and two bands: LAGANINI and KUD ART URBANA" with a magical touch of poetry by Abir Al Jundi.
The audience described the event as a reflection of our unity through the power of music. "We celebrated with excellent music, songs and poetry reflecting the richness of the artistic scene in the Mediterranean region."
On August 23rd, the opening of the exhibition was held in the Libertas Warehouse, where the erased through the photographic eye of Borut Krajnec reflect on their memories, experiences and attitude to the erasure more than thirty years later.
Izbrisani (“deleted”) are residents of Slovenia who were illegally deleted from the register of permanent residents by the Ministry of the Interior on February 26, 1992. With this, they lost their legal status and the associated economic, health and social rights. The Aliens Act came into force for them, so they were treated as foreigners residing illegally in Slovenia. Among those deleted were persons born in Slovenia.
The exhibition is organized by Amnesty Slovenia in cooperation with the erased.
At the opening of the exhibition, they also organized a lecture on erasure with the testimonies of the erased.
The SIDE artistic collective, a member of the ALF network in Slovenia, participated in the Arts Formation artistic gathering tackling decoloniality in digital transformation in the European Union, which took place in June in Lesbos Island.
The Arts Formation is a research project exploring the intersection between arts, society, and technology. It aims to understand, analyze, and promote the ways in which the Arts can reinforce the social, cultural, economic, and political benefits of digital transformation.
In Lesbos Island, from 23 June to 1 July 2023, a group of artists and cultural workers met and collectively navigated the concept of decoloniality in digitalization. The SIDE collective mostly navigated the concept of digital empathy, freedom of speech, representation, and accessibility in digital transformation.
On 29 June, the participants collectively presented their various practices and techniques, reflecting digital transformation from a decolonial lens.
In addition to this recent gathering, last year within the Arts Formation program, the SIDE collective provided an online consultancy to create an online assembly that aims to:
1. Leveraging funds to support artists, beings, individuals, and communities facing marginalization.
2. Creating a self-sustained online community that creates alternative ways and means of funding.
3. Enabling a horizontal exchange between grassroots artists/ cultural workers/ researchers, and activists with practices and ideas that uses art and creative industries to combat marginalization, exploitation, and injustice in digitalization.
The Arts Formation program consists of different working packages. LATRA organization based in Lesbos Island manages the working package about “Arts for Social Change, Participatory Art and Artivism.” Within the framework of this working package, LATRA organization hosted and implemented the following activities in-person in Lesbos Island:
1. Art residency occurred in three cycles in June 2022. Three residences happened in three cycles. Artists, researchers, and cultural workers working for social inclusion participated in artistic collective brainstorming on digitalization, participatory arts, and decoloniality.
2. Residency in digital arts in April 2023, where artists from different backgrounds worked on projects that explored the connection between art and digital transformation.
3. A recent final residency which took place in June 2023, the artists, curators, and researcher continued their individual and collective work exploring the connection between art and digital transformation while reflecting on Lesbos Island as a contextual socio-political-artistic space.
The final conference and event of Arts Formation will take place in Brussels on 21 September 2023.
To learn more about this valuable program, its outcomes, outputs, and final event, visit its website here.
The cycle of events will continue on the 23rd of May at 8 pm with the opening of the exhibition Decoding Resilience, which was created as part of the European BePart project. The exhibition is the final destination of a performative journey devised by Samar Zughool, Behnaz Aliesfahanipour, Safa Saad and Sammar Al Kerawe.
Samar, Behnaz and Sammar were cleaning passersby's shoes at various locations in Slovenia, conversing with their owners while Safa took the role of an observer. During shoe cleaning, they navigated the power dynamics by conversing on expectations from those who have the status of a foreigner or are otherwise confronted with the role of being a foreigner in this country. After cleaning, the artists accepted voluntary contributions and photographed the cleaned shoes. Later, the four artists transformed the shoe photographs into images and sketches, filled with statements and comments from their owners.
The artists decoded social communication through street performances by navigating power dynamics and connecting them to a broader aspect of international politics and geopolitics within the context of contemporary times. From a shoe in Koper to a shoe in the British Museum in London, the process of decoding was mostly focused on decoloniality.
In addition to the exhibition, the artists will host a workshop in the format of a public performative journey named Embodying Decoloniality, which will take place at the same location, from 5 pm to 7 pm. Embodying Decoloniality is a public performative journey that uses performing arts and dance therapy techniques to navigate and unpack emancipatory communication. The workshop is inspired by the novel “A Tree Like Rain” by Samar Habib and is part of the SAMA public performative journeys and Community arts series by Samar Zughool.
Sign up for the workshop through contact@cityofwomen.org.
The public performative journey will last for two hours and may host up to 12 participants.
Collaborators: Samar Zughool, Behnaz Aliesfahanipour, Safa Saad, Sammar Al Kerawe
Free entry
In Egypt, Institute Circle (Zavod Krog) completed the project "Education and awareness of children's rights in Egypt", in the framework of which teachers, children and parents were educated about children's rights. These are often violated in Egypt and the projects that are aimed at education, raising awareness of the importance of respect children's rights and changing the attitude towards children in practice in families, schools and communities are extremely important.
76 pedagogues from schools and organisations took part in the project, who deepened and expanded their knowledge in the field during the trainings during the project children's rights, the Convention on the rights of the child, Egyptian legislation, coaching skills and various interactive learning methods and tools for teaching children on children's rights.
In southern Lebanon, the situation is still unstable due to constant Israeli attacks on villages and towns near the Israeli-Lebanese border. Many residents of this part of Lebanon had to leave their homes and seek refuge in the city of Sidon due to the threat of attacks.
Institute Circle also supports them in the framework of the project "For her dignity - protection from violence, health and food for women and girls in Lebanon" and offer them psychosocial support and the opportunity to participate in educational and awareness-raising workshops on gender equality and sexual and reproductive health.
The activities take place within the framework of the project "For her dignity - health, food and protection from violence for women and girls in Lebanon", which the Institute Circle, together with the partner Developmental Action without Borders - Naba'a, implements in Lebanon.
Within the framework of the Institute Circle's project in cooperation with the partner Developmental Action without Borders - Naba'a and financial support from the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia"For her dignity - protection from violence, health and food for women and girls in Lebanon", QUDWA educational workshops for parents were held.
Developed by UNICEF and the Lebanese Ministry of Social Affairs, the Qudwa methodology empowers parents to take responsibility for realizing children's rights and creating a safe environment for them in their communities.
The #QUDWA methodology aims to address the root causes of negative practices against girls, boys and women such as child labour, child marriage and violence against children and women. The goal of the QUDWA methodology (the word is derived from the Arabic word for good looks) is to simultaneously promote behaviours and norms that strengthen the well-being and dignity of children and gender equality.
In March 2022, the Anna Lindh Foundation for Euro-Med dialogue in Slovenia conducted and published a case study that documents on-hand practices of intercultural learning for sustainable living. The group who contributed to this case study come from different geographical locations and currently lives in Ljubljana, Maribor and Ptuj.
Here you may have access to the study case:
In 2012, Skuhna, a current member of the Anna Lindh Foundation in Slovenia, started their journey as a restaurant and a social enterprise led by migrants who live in Ljubljana to enhance open and intercultural societies through culinary arts, arts and cultural workshops.
Skuhna has always been located on Trubarjeva street in Ljubljana, which is a well-known street with its diversity. Sadly, due to gentrification and as tenants Skuhna left Trubarjeva street in January 2023 with the increase in renting prices with the change of the owner. Skuhna had its two final events on 20 and 23 of January 2023; with great food and music workshops, Skuhna laid its intercultural and artistic legacy on Trubarjeva street in Ljubljana to move forward.
Stay tuned and follow Skuhna's Facebook page and website to know more about their activities and a new location in the future.
Skuhna often enriched our meetings with its rich and intercultural culinary.