RifugiART

Laboratorio 53 organizes mutual self-help groups in Rome, formed by refugees, particularly those requesting international protection, in order to provide them a space for interaction and self-expression aimed at fostering relationships. The objective is to provide new social relationships and emotional bonds to people running from familial and social conditions at the risk of their lives, in order to build new social support networks based on interpersonal relations, trust and reciprocity. Art is used in these mutual self-help groups both to facilitate communication, which is often compromised by language barriers, and as a universal, immediate and effective means of expression. Art also helps those people who have suffered inhuman treatment, such as torture, with the consequent dehumanization and stripping away of culture, to reconnect with their feelings, define their experience and share their cultural references. The workshops result in a number of final performances made up of narration, drawings, photographs and sound recordings (named Guide Invisibili) that speak to the public on the theme of migration, bringing the voice of asylum seekers to the stage.

The project supported by AMI in 2018 focuses on the radio and photo animation workshops and on the production of the RifugiART manual, in order to open up new spaces for debate, information, artistic expression and communication and develop an alternative narrative of migration in Italy. In 2016 and 2017 AMI supported 3 workshops: Theatre of the Oppressed, art and stage set design, radio and ludopedagogy.