The multiactive Art Group Fabrica Athens and the German Non-Profit Organization Mostar Friedensprojekt collaborated for the 3rd consecutive year and carried out the 4th in a row Youth Exchange Program between Greece and Germany, with the theme “Roots and Wings”, supported by Hellenic-German Youth Foundation.
The theater and more specifically the theatrical method used by the instructors of Fabrica Athens “Theater of Research” was a tool to approach the theme of the Youth Exchange. Fanis Katechos, Giovanna Michaliadi Sarti and Pavlos Melikidis were next to the young participants, who for 16 days accompanied and guided a theatrical exploration in Athens and Berlin. The workshops that the young people attended were intensive, daily from 09:00 to 15:00, while in their free time, in addition to the personal and group work – improvisations that they were asked to create, they had the opportunity to get to know the city that hosted, to socialize with its inhabitants and to discover its artistic life and action. It is important to note that the project was free and fully covered financially the participation of young people in theatrical workshops, accommodation, food and transportation costs.
The workshops attended by the 20 young artists took part in the Fabrica Artspace and the Theaterhaus Berlin. The program, after its evaluation, was for them an unprecedented theatrical experience, although all of them had either professional or amateur contact with the theater. This experience included intense physical practice, in order to acquire physical consciousness, group connection and communication, but also unity or otherwise coordination of action / body and idea / mind. The trainers maneuvered between various theatrical methods and not only, but also techniques that they have developed themselves.
Important is the emphasis given by the people of Fabrica Athens to the anthropological part of art, turning art and theater into a tool for life and vice versa, life into a field of inspiration for art. This is a small but crucial detail, as young people participating in exchange programs discover new qualities in life and in the theater, in an artistic journey, which turns into a journey of self-knowledge by being an active member of a group. Therefore, the exchange programs carried out by the Fabrica team are not only a theatrical experience, but a life experience.
The 2 weeks that the 10 Greeks and the 10 Germans spent together, ended in a performance entitled “Roots and Wings”, which was presented at the Schauspielschule Charlottenburg. The performance was a synthesis of the material created by the participants during the program under the direction of Fabrica Athens.
The theatrical organization of Fabrica Athens and Mostar Friedendensproject will conduct in 2019 a variety of new youth exchange programs, as well as European ERASMUS + programs, which will move around the artistic and theatrical axis.
You can be informed about our actions in the field of education in the following electronic links:
https://www.fabricaathens.gr/teamwork/fabrica-athens-our-team/
https://www.facebook.com/researchtheater/
