—-—-—-| WAT?! Waterfront Artistic Troops |-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—
Belfast City Spektra by Andrea ‘Aska’ Varacalli.
BELFASKATING: a wider project to investigate the impact of post-conflict in Northern Ireland through the eyes of the new generation. The research and related issue move from an innovative approach to understand the legacies of a dualistic society in a “new shared future” Era. The project is articulated within a sub-cultural urban context and aims, with the use of visual and audio-interview materials, to portray the “third way to integration”. Acknowledging that the personal and social development is a central theme in the delivery of youth work and identifying some core principles that should subvert some of stereotypes linked to the classification “Youths”, Belfaskating intends to represent an alternative methodological Art step in the direction of exploratory and experimental study.
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Andrea’s shots open a window on a world that begs to differ. The world of a generation forgotten by the contradictions and confusion of a city still recovering from a conflict. This is a brave attempt to speak the same language as Belfast’s young people, to understand their visual creativity. The shots compose a fluid narrative of urban adolescence and youth. Stories are told by mean of gestures, expressions and clothing. Despite being from different tribes, the characters of this unfolding stories merge under the common denominator of skateboarding. Skating is the privileged language chosen by these people to cry out their will to be different. Every piercing, make up, hairstyle, skin cut and piece of clothing is a statement in favour of this difference. These young people managed to create lore of personal stories that, once narrated by their own voices, will try to fill the moral emptiness created by the society of their parents. It is not only a rebellion: it is a creative act, the attempt to construct a reality easy to understand and forgive. Therefore, skating along a wall of graffiti and division has a powerful symbolic meaning. It is the re-appropriation of a territory that has been taken away from them. They are the squatters of those city squares and streets, and they have the right to be there.
After looking at the images, one feels the urge to hear the stories from the kids themselves: their stories of hopes and disillusionment , of pain and self-harm behind those smiles. It is time to start paying attention to them, to give them credit for their refusal to sit back and disappear. Andrea’s photographs gave them voice. Now it is our turn to listen.
Martina Buckley, Department of Applied Psychology, UCC, Cork.
PROJECT OF THE YEAR 2K7. RUNNING FOR THE WORLD SOCIETY PRESS AWARD SHOT OF THE YEAR – (SWIMMING AN AIR ILLUSION) -.
FUNDED BY COMMUNITY RELATION COUNCIL AND EUROPEAN UNION. BELFAST CITY COUNCIL, PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY THE WAT?! TEAM. BELFASTBURG.
[Modificato da billingham 12/11/2007 00:14]
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Tusi, mi no' digo niente, ma gnanca no' taso! Ne la vita pubblica, come nel rugby, ghe xe momenti tragici e altri, peggio ancora, seri: in quei momenti, trovar la forsa per xogar! In campo!
http://www.rugbyunion.it - http://www.bloguemahone.blogspot.com