Express in Colours
Summary of the project
Express in Colours is a Youth Exchange centred on the Graffiti Art and its relation to youth participation. It took place in April 2014 for 7 days, in Nicosia, Cyprus. This project will involve 25 participants from the following countries: Cyprus, Germany, Poland, Egypt and Palestine. Our objective is to discover graffiti as a tool of expression and highlight the intercultural dimension of youth participation. This will be done by analysing each partner’s country development and using past memories and traditions of participants to look into the present and to become aware of the diversity in the Euro-Med Region, promoting European identity and citizenship. Ultimately, we aim to encourage young people to get involved within their local communities and overcome physical boarders to reach a common ground through art.
After consulting the local authorities and community, we intend to create an art piece on a public space, bringing the enthusiasm on the streets and communicating our ideas and concerns with the wider population. This will also stimulate creativity competences in the participants as well as make these initiatives and demands more visible to common people, initiating the development of further projects using art as a tool for youth participation in local communities.
The chosen methodology will involve participants into active participation and sharing their experience gathered in the artistic field. The participants will work within a team and diversified project groups; also, they will take part in plastic workshops, team-building activities and will use many more methods of non-formal education.
Objectives and Priorities
Graffiti is a young form of art and we intend to share our experiences and its impact. We will share practices of this art in our countries, and a youth exchange just creates the best atmosphere for this process. The world is going through many changes, as sources of information are becoming limitless and people often get confused. Graffiti is a simple and yet a valuable way to express feelings, to provide some useful knowledge and even to stand by a principle. It is a tool, which is not as complicated as using social media or blogging on the Internet, thus more accessible for young people to tell their own story through it. In addition, aggressive protests have been widely observed around the world in recent years and youth participation was noticeable. Graffiti can be presented as another tool for youth to protest or present their opinion, which will have less violent and yet effective outcomes. Moreover, the graffiti is easily spreading the message all over the area as all people could see the graffiti in the wall and youth could send their message in a cheap way.
The main objective of this Youth Exchange is to discover graffiti as a tool of expression and highlight the intercultural dimension of youth participation. We need to fight exclusion by governments, by families, by schools. Youth will be encouraged to get involved in their local communities, and overcome physical boarders to reach a common ground through Art.
During this Youth Exchange, we will also share good practices and success stories around our theme, developing further partnerships in projects using art as a tool for youth to peacefully express themselves. Our goal is to work as a team in order to create a piece or art that can tell our story and mission, as well as communicate our initiatives and demands. This will help in bringing our enthusiasm on the streets and share our idea with the local population, also stimulating the creativity competences amongst the participants. Participants will enhance their creativity by taking part in art classes and using their imagination to express their ideas and feelings.
