MOSTEM (in Czech bridge) a TOOL to culturally activate a “non-place”
4 artists will fac the theme of IDENTITY through periodic worshop with 3 different/divided communities to help them to know each other and to co-plan a cultural event. Artists will always be supported by the Ngo who have been working in the area for years. The last months the training will be dedicated to make the communities autonomous in order to continue to manage their territory culturally.

Suburban neighborhood of the city of Tutin, Northern Italy.

MOSTEM was developed to regenerate a large abandoned space around which 3 divided communities live. The aim is to activate a process of aggregation through the CULTURE tool.
Since 2012, with the inauguration of the University Campus, the area host a large number of students. Not far away is the complex of social housing occupied by young families, mainly composed of migrants with minor children. The historic inhabitants of the neighborhood are experiencing the beginning of a process of gentrification of space that risks laying the foundations of a social problem. Mostem responds to the lack of space/moments of aggregation and dialogue.

Recipient of this project are therefore citizens who live in social housing in the neighborhood:
a settlement with a high rate of foreign immigration, university students of Einaudi Campus, young people living away from home and scarcely integrated in the city life. Families living in Borgo Rossini are often immigrated from southern Italy.
MOSTEM has identify 4 tools/languages to deal with the concept of identity, in order to achieve the objective of an active community :
photography, video, movement, storytelling
Four artists, supported by social workers with long experience in the area, will use language as a tool to stimulate the process of understanding citizenship.
Communities will be invited to meet on a less “accidental” ground , on a new consciousness with each other.

a. Engagement and training: engagement of the targeted communities by moments of pre-activation of the space (micro events) Training of artists/operators.
b. Workshops: are the tools we will use to elaborate the concept of IDENTITY. 4 courses will be activated at the same time, on three different targeted communities
c. Meetings, confrontations, exchange of experiences, organized in different locations
d. Co-desig: Citizens, artists and operators will plan together the final event. A large event to give visibility to the project and the community area, to consolidate relationships between communities.
e. Empowerment/legacy: community empowerment. During the last months, MOSTEM will provide the organization of training courses in cultural design, organization, logistics, comm

The project aims to establish a cohesive community that can in the future take care of the common areas covered by the project: a group of citizens able to be in charge of planning around commons. For this reason, the very last phase of the project plans a number of events (meetings, workshops, visits) in order to allow the citizens to become independent, and able to be in charge of organizing events shared by all the communities targeted by MOSTEM. The last months of the project will also be dedicated to escort the “newborn” community, while operators and artists will keep the role of mediators among citizens.
Project monitoring and goals reached on the basis of set objectives, will be constantly updated and followed by the University of Turin , through an assigned Research Scholarship.

Activating a community requires the acknowledgment of its existence.
MOSTEM builds a path on the concept of historical and cultural appropriation
Understanding the process leading to identity definition, is the opportunity to understand its “non-absoluteness”, in order to accept change, and be part of the change without fear.
Acknowledging differences among our target communities, is the way to empower and glorify that hybrid melting pot, able to generate a new sense of citizenship, a rediscovered awareness of belonging to a new shared cultural community and its role.
The whole process aims to connect communities now disrupted, in order to activate a cultural and shared use of common spaces.

The bridge is by definition the element that creates connections, that links one point to the other, making it possible to reach and to be reached . Landmark in mobility, it is the first target to be blown up in war, to isolate the enemy vital centers.
The bridge is a symbol, and refers to what man has learned to build through experienceThe bridge is a material sign of unity and diversity connected, and we believe that culture has the potential to act as a bridge.
We believe that nowadays the artistic language has the incredible powerful potential to connect us all, to facilitate relationships and dialogue, priorities for us all, we must face without further delay.

Managements 23.000€
Artists and workshops 40.000€
Materials 17.000€
Communication 14.800€

The project is partially funded by Compagnia di SanPaolo Foundation
in the frame of CIVICA 2019 (https://www.compagniadisanpaolo.it/it/contributi/bando-civica-2019)
The amount of this contribution is 60.000 euros.

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