How to strengthen youth civic engagement and active citizenship? The artistic-political journey of My Elections – My EU! over the past few months, it has taken about 25 young people to two European countries to address and deepen the topics ‘migration’ and ‘climate change’, to analyse the electoral programmes of political parties, and to inform themselves about the EU and the European Parliament, so that they could vote in the best possible way in the European elections in June 2024.
The workshop in Lampedusa (Italy) – Topic “migrations”
In mid-April, the first European workshop was held in Lampedusa (Italy) to deal with the topic “migrations”; the young people had the opportunity to meet experts in the field and hear stories from locals. A meeting with the Lampedusa Red Cross committee, a meeting with a psychologist who works with migrant women and a meeting with Vito Fiorino, a rescuer during one of the biggest tragedies at sea on 3 October 2013.
These 3 meetings were complemented by a series of small artistic workshops, through which the young people processed the information and stories they heard and started to work on the artistic performance they will bring in front of the newly elected members of the European Parliament in autumn 2024 to voice their political demands on the two themes of the artistic-political journey.
The workshop in Zicksee (Austria) – Topic “climate change”
One month later, the 25 young people met again in Austria, near Zicksee, a large lake which, due to climate change, has almost completely dried up with drastic and irreversible consequences on the surrounding ecosystem and problems for the local flora and fauna.
In this second workshop, the focus of which was ‘climate change’, other meetings with experts helped the young people to learn and deepen their understanding of the subject. These included a meeting with Greenpeace and an expert environmental guide from the area.
Also in this workshop, the meetings with experts were accompanied by work on the final artistic performance and completed by a first rehearsal of the performance in a public square in Vienna.
The European elections and the final performance
After these two workshops, the young people had the opportunity to vote in the European elections on 8 and 9 June, getting a clearer picture of the political programmes and issues addressed.
The next workshop meeting will be in autumn 2024, where the young people will complete the artistic performance and bring it to the new members of the European Parliament together with their demands for a future that is more inclusive, respects the human rights of all people and in which there is a greater fight against climate change.
To learn more about the project and find out all the news, contact Giulia Siino: giulia.siino@cesie.org.
About the project
My Elections – My EU! is a project funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ Programme – Cooperation Partnership in the field of youth, which aims to help young people to understand and critically reflect on European election programmes and to develop their own demands based on real experiences, thus increasing voter participation in the 2024 European elections.
Partners
- SUDWIND VEREIN FUR ENTWICKLUNGSP OLITIK UND GLOBALE GERECHTIGKEIT (Austria, coordinator)
- Ekumenická akademie, z. s. (Czech Republic)
- Fundacja Kupuj Odpowiedzialnie (Poland)
- Teatro Atlante Cooperativa Sociale (Italy)
- CESIE (Italy)
- DRUŠTVO HUMANITAS – CENTER ZA GLOBALNO UČENJE IN SODELOVANJE (Slovenia)
- Fundacja Sztukmistrze (Poland)
- Kulturno umetniško društvo Transformator (Slovenia)
- FUORI – Verein für performative Kunst (Austria)
- Prosvěta s.r.o. (Czech Republic)
For further information
Read more about the project.
Contact Giulia Siino: giulia.siino@cesie.org.
