Reappropriation through digital art
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
Children aged between 8 and 12 years old committed themselves in a discovery project about solidarity, upcycling and social cohesion, core values of the Emmaüs Movement. They took part in artistic workshops with the digital artist Francisco Pez to create a fresco that expresses their vision of the Movement. It will be exposed in their neighborhood, after being inaugurated during a cultural festival, Le Festival Regard neuf 3.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
Currently rehabilitating 884 social housing in la Cité des Hauts-Bâtons in the city of Noisy-le-Grand (93), we went in touch with many of our tenants to know their needs… and randomly discovered that a lot of them didn’t know the Emmaüs Movement.
As a social lender member not only of Habitat Réuni but also of the worldwide Emmaüs Movement, we wanted our tenants to get aware of the values we carry: solidarity, sustainable development, and social cohesion. It seemed important especially because those tenants are indirectly part of this movement too, by paying their rent.
We decided to work with our tenant’s children in order to make them proud of belonging to a family that takes part to a Movement with strong values and a great social purpose. How ? Through different workshops, leading to the creation of a fresco that will show the world all the things they have learned, and make their vision spread. But not any fresco, a really nowadays anchored one, huge and colorful, that will talk to everyone: a digital fresco.
In a first time, we organized several cohesion workshops. It allowed us to create a strong group, motivated to be part of the digital fresco project.
In a second time, we made workshops more centered on the Emmaüs Movement, so as the children could soak up with its values and story. The digital artist Francisco Pez was present too, helping them to conceptualize the fresco, and co-creating it with them.
Finally, to put their work under the spotlight and give them more credits, we set it in the Festival Regard neuf 3, an event run by the social tenants based in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, that takes place from the 11th to the 23rd of juny 2021. It offers a huge variety of artistic events that promotes exchanges and discovery of this department, its social housing park, and its cultural scene. The festival Regard neuf 3 aims to change the vision that people have about the department, particularly stigmatized and devaluated because of its socialss
Key objectives for sustainability
The group of young people that gathered during the multiples workshop is meant to stay bounded in time, because we are offering them the opportunity to be part of a new cultural program next year. Also the fresco is meant to remain and be presented by the young people multiple time : it’s printed and can be printed again in case of deteriorations, or reproduce for specific events such as cultural events organized by the Emmaüs Movement.
It was important for us to create a bounded group of young people, as much for themselves that for the reach of their parents. Not all the workshops were children centered, there was also older people inclusive activities, such as a bingo afternoon (48 players, average age 21, from 6 years old to 67 years old). It created a real generation mixite.
The workshops were also a way to get in touch with our tenants and learn about their interest, an entrance to other activities such as sessions to learn the basic first aid, whatever their age. There has been 9 classes, with 126 participants, from 6 years old to 67 years old.
Objectives :
- Create cohesion within the residence: Through workshops that target all age groups: 9 cohesion workshops (Fifa Tournament, 2 bingos, Canvas design, Custom T-shirt, introduction to magic, Board games, 2 tree climbing outings). We mobilized a total of 126 people between the ages of 6 and 67.
- Form a group of young people: through the artistic workshops carried out on Saturdays from 2pm to 6pm. 11 young people who participated in at least 6 workshops in total formed the group that created the fresco on the Emmaus movement in collaboration with the artist Francisco Pez.
- Realized a fresco durable and reusable over time: the digital format.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Aesthetic was a predominant factor in the project. It was important to carry out in-depth work on the Emmaus movement while offering tenants a colorful fresco in order to catch their eye and encourage them to study the fresco as a whole and in detail. Since the fresco was intended to be exhibited on a central axis of the residence, it was essential that the colors chosen made the fresco visible without making it aggressive and denoting with its environment.
Key objectives for inclusion
Our workshops helped tenants of the youngest and oldest generation to meet, and to connect. Also, we brought art at the foot of our buildings through multiple workshops that took place outside, on the central square between our buildings.
Furthermore, putting this fresco in the in the Festival Regard neuf 3 program is also a social mixite vector: it brings person from Paris to come and discover an aspect of the Seine Saint Denis they didn’t necessarily know, far from all the clichés about this department.
Results in relation to category
Being inaugurated on the 16th of June, we haven’t been able to take a step back and evaluate the impact of this fresco. Nevertheless, we plan an evaluation about the artistic impact through 3 forms :
One form for the tenants, about their appreciation of the fresco and the perception they have of the neighborhood before/after it has been created, one for the young people of the volunteer group that created the fresco, and one for their parents. The idea is to evaluate the personal benefits the kids got with this project from their different points of view.
How Citizens benefit
The tenants took part in different workshops during the year. Among them :
- The canvas workshop: through this workshop, they get initiated to painting on canvas. They let their imagination lead them!
- The custom Tee-shirt workshop: still in the creation area, we proposed the tenants to bring a Tee-shirt to customize. The rebirth of clothes by the grace of art was the mantra of this workshop.
- The Give a second chance to your object workshop: to give a second chance to an object, or to a person is one of the core values of the Emmaüs Movement. The tenants could give a new appearance or use to an object they choose.
Innovative character
At the beginning, we thought that creating a digital fresco was a way to anchor in modernity and contemporaneity. But once again, we launched the fresco project before the sanitary crises, with the will to work on a sustainable, removable and evolutive format. The COVID19 crises reaffirmed to ourselves that we could make art through digital, but it also showed us it was a way to bring it to the widest audience. This fresco could be seen and appreciated as well in its physical dimension in Noisy-le-Grand as anywhere in Europe.
