Articles
Letter from a participant
One of the participants of the DARE conference on Intercultural Dialogue in Vienna shares her experiences and views on the event:
DARE to engage!
A century ago, Vienna hosted Klimt’s work group exhibition, the Kunstschau. The secessionist got recognized as a major master. A piece of his work could be technically scrupulously analyzed, but is it worth it when what matters is how he makes us feel? How could the disposition of shapes and colours lead to a general consensus, the choices he made on how to use space and display a priceless frame lead to human appreciation? In the end, being an artist is all about convictions and how you assume them, share them and stand for them.
Meanwhile the Belvedere is hosting the current secessionist exhibition, a conference organized by the DARE network titled ‘Intercultural dialogue: challenges for Education for Democratic Citizenship-EDC and Human Rights Education-HRE’. It took place from November 14 to November 17 at the banks of the Danube. Formal (teachers and scholars) and non formal (youth workers, NGO representatives and activist) education practitioners gathered with European policy makers to reflect on the current possible improvements that are to bring to the field, exchange about good practices and create networks. The Hilton hotel hosted us and all the conditions we were offered during our stay were really high standard.
I found the call for this meeting on the database of the Salto youth resource centre, and since the selection process began, I’ve received regular information about the preparation so that I felt aware and implied in the conference. I found the prep-team remarkable and got to know them during the conference, especially Reinhard Eckert, and later Anne Stalfort, who kindly asked me if I could share my impressions about the event, as I spoke about it with a lot of enthusiasm. Moreover, I got astonished when she told me that one of her tasks is to determine how and whether DARE should continue its activities. I am personally deeply convinced it should – the reasons are further down in this text.
I first attended a workshop about the edition of books dedicated to teachers’ work to raise awareness of key concepts related to HRE/EDC for children, from kindergarten to secondary school. The speaker, Rolf Gollob, not only facilitated the interaction during his presentation (and in the discussion groups set up later on), but he also actually explained specific issues the stakeholders involved for the redaction of the book experienced through all the process.
The edited material and its translation are financed by European funds, and the book’s content is supervised by a consortium of experts, notably from the Council of Europe.
The illustration on the front page, for instance, was a topic of debate. The final version came out after long talks to get rid off unwanted potential amalgams (e.g. references to the gap between the European East and West settings) and reflect the best possible, the book’s intention.
During the discussion groups and later on by informally meeting practitioners who have been involved in the field for a long time, I got the chance to confront my visions with experienced people. Some of them were representing higher institutions of Europe, giving a human face to the expert instances. The Council of Europe became more accessible to me, reinforcing my will to actively take part in building, diffusing and promoting European citizenship and the values most of us share in our work.
On Saturday, I took part in the session called ‘the theatre of the oppressed’, led by the energetic Laura de Witte. All day long, we had practice sessions on how to deal with social conflicts; most of the issues dealt with situations taken from our own background experience. It was all about laughing and sharing feelings with each other. We all expressed our own creativity and thoughts on how we could make a difference in daily life, to improve any situation, being spect-actors, listening to the others and reacting on concrete matters in order to act for a better world in the end …
I personally enjoyed it greatly, even though it was (behind appearance) a positive challenge for me to stand up and speak in public. However, the motivation was there thanks to the tacit support of all the group, encouraging each other by glances, to get over our own boundaries. This way of empowering people by smiling altogether and sharing energy is also part of the networking we are supposed to establish outside the workshops. A positive touch is the first element that is needed to set up successful projects. Common values and beliefs debated through theatre give for sure an impulse for further collaboration and ideas on how to deal with other kinds of daily situations and work.
Beside practical information on how to pursue action, the last Sunday session was a speech of Bashy Quraishy about intercultural reality in the prospect of the education of minorities. Talking about his noble experience, observations and researches, the speaker shared a personal view. He quoted his father, a teacher, who used to say that education is a tonic which sustains the spirit, building our minds with knowledge to live the daily life according to the system of values we live for. This is why long learning is so important.
I remember my father telling me that he would not lock me in my room to make me study: I have the tools, he is trying to pass the values in which he believes on to me and it’s up to me to concretise them, to empower me. I always thought therefore that I had the keys to choose and strive in order not to disappoint him. This process of responsibilization made me trust that it is up to me. I’m still acting consequently.
In 1908, The Klimt’s group imposed an interdisciplinary approach in art, with a revolutionary combination of all means created for our expression and in a wide range of fields, as toys for children or theatre settings. He is now famous for the way of thinking he has set up, somehow contributing to think globally, with the belief that inclusion of small actions in subsystems can achieve a better general way of being. He may felt actualized at the moment he achieved that. He became famous for a way of thinking, almost a life philosophy.
As the Klimt’s group originally introduced the Gesamtkunstwerk- the total work of art, the Dare’s group reinforced the idea of GesamtSozialAktionWerk for practitioners in Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education, performing and implementing visions as well. Of course, we are also exposed to doubts, but this kind of conference helps us coping with reality, strengthening our hopes and gaining new inspirations to later deal with the various projects we are involved in.
This is how I would justify this event. Grateful thanks to the prep-team for having allowed me taking part in the great conference and I would like to share a thousand smiles with the participants, for the positive mood we shared and the great memories I keep of the weekend.
Posted in 2008-11: DARE conference| 14.12.08
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