Open European Societies

The project «OPEN EUROPEAN SOCIETIES» was funded with the
support of the European Union under the Programme
“Europe for Citizens”Applicable to the Strand 2 – Measure 2.2 “Networks of Towns”

“Open European Societies” (Europe for Citizens, 2018-2022), a follow-up project of the “You are Welcome” project (Europe for Citizens, 2017-2019) started officially on the 8th of December 2018 with the kick-off meeting organised by Jugend- & Kulturprojekt e.V. at the City Hall of Dresden. Representatives of the partner organisations from the Czech Republic, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary and the United Kingdom discussed the aims of the project, the annual priorities of the Europe for Citizens programme. The project manager, Myrto-Helena Pertsinidi introduced the activities and outputs that each partner is assigned to do throughout the implementation of the project and together with the partners discussed the expected outcomes of the planned activities as well as the budget. Later on, a presentation about how to research the topic of migration in the partners’ countries was made by Dr. Theresa Lempp.
Four events were implemented:
Event 1
Participation: The event involved 85 citizens, including 57 participants from Dresden (Germany), 11 participants from Prague (Czech Republic), 2 participants from Aarhus (Denmark), 6 participants from Thessaloniki (Greece), 1 participant from Budapest (Hungary), 1 participant from Kumanovo (Northern Macedonia) and 7 participants from Greenwich/London (United Kingdom) Location / Dates: The event took place in Dresden, Germany, from 8/12/2018-9/12/2018 Short description: The aim of the event was to bring for the first time all the representatives of all partners together and discuss the aims, activities & working methods, outputs, and expected outcomes of the project as well as to invite citizens from Dresden and third-country nationals and introduce them the project. The activities aimed at encouraging native citizens from Dresden, international participants, and third-country nationals that live in Dresden to interact with each other culturally and socially in the first public event where all partners and locals from Dresden including migrants and refugees, were invited to join the 1st transnational event of the project at the new premises of Jugend- & Kulturprojekt e.V., known as KulturCentrale. The public event included the photo exhibition “Street Stories” by Ahmad Kaddoura and Ibrahim Fheili, short documentation videos of the EfC project “You are Welcome” whose follow-up project is Open European Societies, Iranian music by the Iranian artist Afsharzadeh Saeed and Persian cuisine prepared by the Iranian community of Dresden. On the 2nd day, the 9th of December 2018 all partners presented the current migrant situation of their countries and discussed the integration policies that their countries follow. Moreover, the team of Jugend- & Kulturprojekt e.V. explained more thoroughly the concept of the video interviews and the video campaign. Finally, a discussion regarding the visibility of the project, the dissemination and exploitation of the project’s outcomes followed.
Event 2
Participation: The event involved 152 citizens, including 16 participants from Dresden (Germany), 4 participants from Prague (Czech Republic), 3 participants from Aarhus (Denmark), 12 participants from Thessaloniki (Greece), 3 participants from Budapest (Hungary), 4 participants from Kumanovo (Northern Macedonia), 7 participants from Paris (France) and 103 participants from Greenwich/London (United Kingdom) Location / Dates: The event took place in Greenwich/London, United Kingdom from 16/03/2019 – 17/03/2019 at the University of Greenwich. Short description: The 2nd Transnational Partner Meeting and conference “Performing Migration: Personal Stories Past & Present” were held at the University of Greenwich on 16-17 March 2019 organised by the European Reminiscence Network and hosted by the University of Greenwich. The conference looked at reminiscence art works and performance pieces based on the lived experience of migration now and in the past. On the 16th of March, the Otherness Dialogues Workshop took place in the morning, led by Rita Julia Sebestyen exploring memories and imagining a safe space through storytelling and performing. In the afternoon, the 2nd transnational event officially started, and Pam Schweitzer, the Director of ERN presented the exhibition of Memory Boxes containing the life stories of migrants looking back on their life with the help of professional artists. Drama students from the University of Greenwich presented two short plays they have made from the stories in the Memory Boxes. Drama students shared their learning on making theatre from memories and archiving those memories, with special reference to the stories of ethnic minority elders who migrated to London. Protein Dance gave a presentation of their dance piece, “Border Tales” with video excerpts and an explanation of the company’s approach, involving dancers who themselves have migrated. The screening of the short film “New Young Europeans” by Carl Cordonnier followed, hearing the voices of young people from ten cities across Europe who are migrants today. The Forum Theatre play ** “Me? I just put British!” created by Erene Kaptani and the migrant families involved in the project addressing the question “Can an Immigrant, a Woman, a Black Body ever be a full citizen?” followed, giving the chance to the audience intervene and change the course of the performance. Erica Rolle on Galeforce Productions Universal Ltd working with migrant women in the local area gave a short speech about her work and the struggle of female black women to be accepted as British citizens. Joseph Toonga presented an evening of dance on the theme of migration. This presentation of solo and group work gave a very contemporary interpretation of the experience of young migrants and their involvement in the creative exploration of lived experience through hip-hop and other evolving dance forms. The public event of the Open European Societies project was officially closed by Q&A where David Paul Lashley Hockham and the audience asked questions to the performers regarding their work connected to their personal experiences of migration. On Sunday, March 17th, the Open European Societies partners met to discuss the progress of their work, starting first of all with a short introduction of two new partners that have recently joined the project: La Transplanisphère from Paris and Aarhus Universitet from Denmark. The meeting included the presentation of the desk research that the partners conducted regarding the History of Migration in the partners’ countries and their impact on the transformation of European societies, a discussion regarding the video campaign, and a video interview workshop followed with the aim of providing all necessary knowledge and techniques to the persons who were expected to conduct the video interviews with third-country nationals. Later on, the participants visited the new building of the University of Greenwich where the archives of the European Reminiscence Network are stored. Mrs. Pam Schweitzer spoke about the archives she collected from the research she carried out, including the theatre workshops and performances she has coordinated and directed respectively.
Event 3
Participation: The event involved 319 citizens, including 13 participants from Dresden (Germany), 3 participants from Prague (Czech Republic), 4 participants from Aarhus (Denmark), 222 participants from Thessaloniki (Greece), 2 participants from Budapest (Hungary), 59 participants from Kumanovo (Northern Macedonia), 3 participants from Paris (France) and 13 participants from Greenwich/London (United Kingdom) Location / Dates: The event took place in Thessaloniki, Greece from 23/11/2019 to 24/11/2019 Short description: The aim of the event was to follow up on the current progress of the project and to assess the impact made with regard to the project objectives such as combatting migrant stigmatisation and Hate Speech. During the first day, the representatives of the project partners from the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, North Macedonia and the United Kingdom joined the partners’ meeting coordinated by Myrto-Helena Pertsinidi. The partners presented and discussed the local workshops they implemented, they explained the methods they used and presented the learning outcomes of their workshops. All representatives of the project partners participated in the interactive storytelling workshop led by Dimitris Savvaidis – Addart, who introduced the basic principles of storytelling through the use of non-formal learning tools. The participants worked in teams creating a story altogether and then presenting it. In the evening, both visitors and the project partners attended the transnational event at Warehouse D at the port of Thessaloniki, where Mrs Myrto-Helena Pertsinidi – JKPeV, the project coordinator spoke about the project, its aims and activities. Guest speaker was Babis Papaioannou, General Secretary of Youth in Greece, who gave a salutation speech and referred to the current migration crisis in Greece, followed by a short presentation by Thodoris Diamantopoulos from Praxis who spoke about the difficulties that young minor refugees and migrants face in Thessaloniki and the social work of Praxis supporting and sheltering young minor refugees and migrants. The event started with Divarco, a group of young talented jazz musicians who played live gypsy jazz music. Gypsy music has always been connected to a nomadic way of living, moving from place to place and expressing the struggle of stigmatised Roma people over the years to be accepted, respected and treated equally. The exhibition “1000 words against Hate Speech” by illustrators from all over Greece at the foyer incited the visitors to reflect on the power of art conveying messages of unity, understanding, acceptance and diversity and counteracting hate speech and discrimination. The photo exhibition “The Others” by Nopi Ranti depicts different characters living in the city of Thessaloniki seen as “others”. Short animation films about human rights were screened and invited participants to reflect and discuss on their messages and symbolism. The audiovisual performance ‘Dystopia/Utopia’ by Die! Goldstein, depicted the reality we are experiencing in the 21st century and highlighted the current global issues such as migration, poverty, climate change, war, and globalisation. On November 24th, the partners’ meeting continued with the presentation of the video campaign and the screening of the video interviews that each partner conducted. The partners discussed the working process and the challenges they encountered.
Event 4
Participation: The event involved 402 citizens, including 266 participants from Dresden (Germany), 27 participants from Prague (Czech Republic), 13 participants from Aarhus (Denmark), 3 participants from Thessaloniki (Greece), 10 participants from Budapest (Hungary), 10 participants from Kumanovo (Northern Macedonia), 50 participants from Paris (France) and 23 participants from Greenwich/London (United Kingdom) Location / Dates: The event took place in Dresden, Germany from 16/07/2021 to 18/07/2021 Short description: The aim of the event was to summarize and evaluate what the project partners have done so far. As a final event Jugend-& Kulturprojekt e.V. Dresden organised the Art & Diversity Festival aiming to promote the inclusion of third-country nationals and cultural diversity while counteracting stereotypes and taking a firm stand against discrimination, xenophobia and Hate Speech. JKPeV set up a great variety of artistic, performative and music activities – ranging from art and photo exhibitions to music concerts of various music genres, performances, film screenings, readings, poetry, an art market, a zine workshop and a live painting show by artists coming from different countries. These were aimed at bringing people together, celebrating art and creativity while promoting acceptance, diversity and open-mindedness. At the final partner meeting the representatives of the partner organisations discussed and evaluated what they achieved throughout the implementation of the project, the impact of the project on local, national, and European levels, and shared their experiences and the difficulties they encountered due to COVID-19. They also discussed the sustainability of the project and how they could follow it up. JKPeV collaborated with several local cultural associations which are based in Hechtviertel and Neustadt in Dresden, Germany creating a network of local cultural spots and facilities and making it possible to extend the festival‘s activities to various locations in Dresden’s Neustadt district. The main local partners of JKPeV were Weltclub e.V. Weinselig and Hechtviertel e.V. which hosted different cultural, art and music events and activities of the ART & DIVERSITY Festival. The music acts reflected a great diversity of musical origins and genres. On the first two days of the event, the participants had the pleasure to enjoy different music performances with world music sounds. Round-table and informal discussions at KulturCentrale on interculturality, developing intercultural competencies and intercultural mediation were held focused on fostering cross-cultural dialogue while counteracting discrimination, racism and hate speech. Meanwhile, at Weltclub, the AFROPA HAUSBAND inspired visitors with their versatile musical style mixing Afro and Buena Vista with a touch of the melancholy of Fado. On the final day, the music group PERSIAN FUSION (Iran) played Persian traditional music in a modern style and the live performance of the multicultural music group SEAU VOLANT invited visitors to dance and enjoy the open street festival atmosphere with their balkan, klezmer and polka music. Furthermore, JKPeV cooperated with a special musical initiative aimed at enhancing local urban spaces through music: KLANGRAUM DD is a project dedicated to installing artistically designed pianos in public spaces and thereby offers a stage for improvisation and playing music together. The piano was set up in front of KulturCentrale, and musicians from different cultural backgrounds played with 4 hands. A visual art exhibition under the title ART 4 ALL took place at Weltclub. The exhibition displayed artworks from four artists from different countries, social and artistic backgrounds. ENAS ARABI’s (Syria) colourful works reflect the philosophy of ancient civilizations. In his calligraphical works, SILVIO COLDITZ (Germany) transforms poetry to a visual dimension, whereas JAKYEONG’s (South Korea) paintings symbolise diversity. ALEKSANDRA VAGABONDA’s (Poland) artworks represent the reconnection of humans with nature. FLUX WILDLY’s (Netherlands) exhibition „Nachtwesen“ – creatures of the night, OLGA YOCHEVA‘s (Bulgaria) film screening on artists that reside in the Dresden Neustadt district and come from different cultural backgrounds and the two exhibitions of AXEL C. KUBITZ (Germany) depicting different faces from the local Hechtviertel and infrared photography were held. RAHMA BEN FREDJ (Tunisia) presented the physical theatre and dance performance „Out of this World“ symbolising the struggle of a stranger – the refugee – to be accepted. FLUX WILDLY’s live-action art show invited guests to interact with each other artistically. The short videos of third-country nationals’ oral stories under the title “Tell me your Story” and the international video campaign “All Different All Same” which were both produced within the framework of the Open European Societies project, were screened at KulturCentrale and a photo exhibition focused on the OES project’s public events took place. An interactive mini-zine workshop took place inviting the participants to create their own minizines through collage, drawing, painting, and writing and to share their stories. Each mini-zine is a unique story of each participant inspired from their personal experiences.