Video, Movement and Participation at the NEWSPACE Residency in Bologna
July 2025
From 19 to 24 July, Bologna hosted the Italian chapter of the NEWSPACE project, a six-day summer camp that brought together adolescents from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds to explore identity, care and transformation through participatory art. The young participants were divided into groups that rotated in turn, allowing each of them to collaborate with all three teams of artists.
Working Through Dreams and Metamorphosis
The group led by Pietro Floridia of Cantieri Meticci (Italy), began with a simple yet powerful exercise: each participant was invited to write down a dream of metamorphosis into an animal. These dreams became a gateway into their inner worlds, allowing the young people to express desires and fears in a language that was intimate, imaginative and deeply personal.
A recurring theme was care. Many participants envisioned themselves as protectors, transforming into animals to rescue underage refugees attempting to cross borders in search of safety. These narratives were transformed into scripts for short videos, animated through stop-motion techniques and brought to life with masks designed under the guidance of artist Sara Pour.
Using their own smartphones to film and, in some cases, edit the videos gave the teenagers complete creative control over the process, fostering both autonomy and confidence.
A Collective and Multilingual Process
Participation was remarkably high thanks to the diverse range of artistic languages used. Everyone found their own way to contribute: writing, drawing, acting, filming, or composing music. The mix of ages and skills created a vibrant and collaborative atmosphere where every contribution strengthened the collective creation.
One of the biggest challenges was integrating a group of unaccompanied refugee minors, many of whom spoke only Arabic. A key turning point came through the mediation of two girls of Syrian background, who acted as cultural and linguistic bridges, helping to unite the group. Flexibility and active listening became crucial tools to adapt the process to the participants’ tastes and interests.
Movement, Presence and Opening Up
Alongside the video work, Impulse Transformation Platform (ITP) brought the same methodologies tested in Kyiv and Warsaw to Bologna. Through breathing, grounding, rhythm, and improvisation, the mentors worked to help the teenagers explore self-expression through movement and find comfort in performing.
Compared to other residencies, the Bologna group showed a greater level of self-awareness but also more hesitation and insecurity in non-verbal representation. The use of games and improvisation structures, combined with video, helped them rediscover the beauty of what they initially overlooked. On the final day, all the exercises were revisited with the participants, who reflected on their meaning and potential use in future creative work.
What stood out most was the way the participants gradually opened up to the mentors, creating an atmosphere that was profound, emotional, and at times existential. Parents’ reactions during and after the residency were especially moving, as they shared how the experience had shifted their perception of their children and addressed some of their needs and struggles.
Building Creative Confidence
Strefa WolnoSłowa (Poland) brought a playful and immersive approach to their work with children and young people, using sensory exploration, simple techniques, and theatrical improvisation to help them feel at ease in the group, name their emotions, build self-confidence, and strengthen their creative agency. The sessions, held outdoors at Salus Space, quickly became a vibrant mix of colours, textures, and movement.
One of the most memorable moments came from a workshop built entirely around a large watermelon. Participants explored it through charcoal drawing, pastel colouring, paper collage, clay modelling, painting, tasting the fruit, and finally capturing their impressions in a final drawing. With the older group, the focus shifted to identity: self-portraits, exchanging positive associations, turning words into poems, and painting portraits of each other created a dynamic and intimate process of self-discovery and connection.
Thanks to the support of several bilingual participants, the artists managed to overcome linguistic obstacles, alternating between English, Ukrainian, and Italian and turning communication itself into an act of collaboration.
Throughout the residency, Strefa WolnoSłowa fostered an environment where every participant could experiment, take risks, and contribute in their own way. They also also created a video documenting the entire process and supported a group of teenagers in producing their own short film, Uno scherzo dal retrogusto di pomodoro. This experience allowed the teenagers to take ownership of the creative process, from concept to filming, while also leaving a tangible record of their collective work.
Sharing the Work with the Community
On the evening of 24 July, the residency concluded with a sharing event where the teenagers and artists presented their videos and performances to the local community. The evening celebrated not only the creative outcomes but also the process itself: six days of intense collaboration, self-discovery, and collective storytelling. The event was a success, with both participants and audience members highlighting the emotional depth and authenticity of the work.
Building Space Through Art
The Bologna residency demonstrated once again the power of participatory art to build bridges, foster resilience and create spaces of care and connection. By combining dreams, movement, video, and collective storytelling, the NEWSPACE project offered young people a safe and empowering environment to explore who they are and who they can become.
Thanks to the reflections shared within the consortium and the insights provided by IRS, the partnership is now prepared to develop a solid framework for the workshop programmes, which will launch this autumn in Warsaw, Kyiv, and Bologna.
As the project continues across borders, the voices, images, and stories born in Bologna will resonate with those from Kyiv and Warsaw, weaving together a shared narrative of transformation and hope.
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NEWSPACE is funded by the Creative Europe Programme
