In a suburban area of Milan, a group of different citizens, think back on their relationship post COVID-19 with institutions through a common artistic and social experience. A co-created interactive multimedia artwork proposes virtual and territorial paths to share the stories and expectations of its inhabitants. An experience that makes the inhabitants and professionals of the neighborhood collective protagonists to improve the cohesion between the inhabitants and their sense of belonging.

Figino a suburban area of Milan, Lombardy, Italy

Covid-19 forced people to gradually loose contact with the rest of the community. Now that people are ready to get in touch again, we can start from scratch to imagine new ways of living in common.
The challenge is to redesign the storytelling of a territory through a collective point of view and a participatory process, which offer the individual the opportunity to rethink his/her self as part of a complex and collective system, going beyond an individual approach.
We want base the project in Figino, a peripheral area of Milan, an isolated neighborhood with a big matter of identity, divided into two parts that do not interact with each other. A neighborhood in which the research of a collective identity depends on individual’s capability to recognize to be part of a common territory.

The project engages the community, in six places of cultural and social interaction (i.e: school, social housing, enterprise, care, youth and cultural center). The method implies the involvement of different generations and socio-cultural categories. People are reached within their contexts of belonging, avoiding that participation must depend on a proactive attitude of people. Target groups: inhabitants of the district (the old part -ancient village- and the new part -sustainable village), two dimensions not in dialogue with each other. Beside the artist and inhabitants, the process will involve a community manager (that is working in Figino since years), cultural moderators and representatives of the 6 places, with an interdisciplinary approach that involves all the players of the area

Exploring the concept of re-appropriation of a territory through a trans-disciplinary method of co-creation that combines research-action, urban regeneration and art.
Steps: 1)Building the team within the local community
2)Activation of the process of reflection and empowerment in school, enterprise, youth center, cultural center, care center, social housing
3)Co-creation and realization of the artwork with the contribution of individual inhabitants and professionals
4)Sharing of the results of the process through a cultural event of presentation using the artwork (app, interactive installation) to guide the local and supra-local audience with the presence of participants to discover the contents disseminated throughout the territory
5)impact analysis by a university researcher

The participation of all communities in the same process of reflection and empowerment will activate new relationships between the groups and several self-organized events to create a better sense of belonging to the territory.
The communities will be able to: - use the artwork to accompany their guests on virtual and/or real thematic paths of discovery of their territory; - dialogue with other similar contexts, among the 6 socio-cultural selected contexts, belonging to other Italian or European cities, in which the methodology will be replicated.
Over time, the identity of the neighborhood will be perceived internally and communicated externally with greater clarity.

This is an action-research project that investigates a territory from the point of view of its inhabitants. The community is involved in a process of enhancement of the context. Individual's personal story will be part of a collective storytelling that will allow everyone to reconsider his/her point of view as part of a wider representation of the context.
The project adopts the artistic language and practices, in a functional way: to encourage the acceptance of the differences, to enhance the change of perspectives, to build a space for exchanges. It trains to curiosity and tolerance, for the benefit of the individuals and of the whole community. In these terms, the artistic practice becomes a practice of democracy, bringing people together and creating opportunities for open dialogue.

This project represents the opportunity to reflect on the possibilities for living in diversity. Thanks to the support of other professionals involved on field, we have the opportunity to test methodologies and tools of research in order to replicate the project in other geographical contexts. Our ambition is to realize this initiative in other national and European contexts, creating a virtual space where sharing and connecting all the practices. We would like to move from a local to a broader dimension, to gather a wide community of people around common practices in order to feed a critical thought about the construction of contemporary popular culture.

Actions
1.general management and coordination: € 20,500 (33,97% total budget)
2.participatory artistic project: €17,900 (29.66%)
3.digital development: € 17,000 (28.17%)
4.communication and promotion: € 4.950 (8,2%)
Typologies
HR (internal staff)=€15,900 (26.35%)
HR (external staff)=€30,800 (51.04%)
Production costs=€9,650 (15.99%)
Generale management costs=€3,000 (4.97%)
Other costs=€1,000 (1.66%)
Funds
Civic Europe contribution=€50,000 (82,85%)
IP contribution=€10,350 (17,15%)