We have already talked about artistic mediation, trying to explain its genesis and its definition. Well, today we will talk about art and integration instead.
MOH has set the goal of trying to solve what are social problems that inhabit our times, through the mediation that comes from art.
Mixing art with its social function also means taking an ethical responsibility especially when using it in so-called “critical” contexts.
In fact, artistic mediation can be used to work with a wide range of targets, avoiding any problems of verbal language: the use of the body, colours, representation, voice modulation, etc. are understandable to everyone. Art, therefore, as a means of integration.
So why use artistic mediation as an integration tool for migrants, for example?
Within creation we turn to other human beings. To contemplate a work of art is to participate in the intimacy of its creator, through aesthetic empathy: in many cases, in fact, the more intimate the process is, the greater the demand for capacity. Ability to be involved when we are part of a theatrical, musical or dance project. It lies in knowing ourselves as part of the group and in the way the identity of the group is defined against the prevailing individuality of our society and contemporary creation.
Within a delicate context, such as workshops dedicated to the integration of people coming from a culture different from the one where they currently live, whether they are migrants or simply in “minority”, the use of the artistic medium facilitates both communication and integration as the space of creation allows hatred and forgiveness, anger and pain, the understanding, in short, of our passion.
Used to a society based on consumption, where acquisition implies immediate satisfaction, facing dialogue and understanding with matter (stone, wood, clay) is to recognize not only the rules of the game, but our ability to adapt our rhythm to the rhythm of matter and to know from the beginning that this is a game in which not only the human being makes the rules. And precisely in this way, i.e. returning to simplicity, to the use of the material of the colours of the body, we will find ourselves knowing how to dialogue with people who we think different but who will react in the same way to that material and those colours.
In the next article we will talk about practical examples of artistic mediation that you can use during your workshops with migrants (and not only)!
