The project saw the creation of 4 laboratory cycles which, respecting the “Comfort Zone” methodology, guided the kids to discover and pro-actively re-elaborate the memory of the territory, through expressive, creative and practical activities, carried out starting from from the Ateliers already structured within the schools part of the network, and continued directly in the heritage places of the Great War.
The laboratory cycles were provided freely and free of charge, aimed at primary and secondary school children and were developed in direct partnership with some primary and secondary schools in the cities concerned.
The project therefore saw the involvement of pupils of about 10 school complexes in the territories of the lower and upper Isontino and Cervignanese areas.
The workshops were also presented and introduced, as scheduled, on the openday days of May and June 2019.
The workshops had as a conclusion and moment of maximum interest, trips on the territory with the artists, in order to offer young participants the opportunity to rework emotions, feelings and thoughts related to the theme of the Great War thanks to direct contact with the places of the conflict, which are precious treasure chests of human experience.
The workshops were therefore carried out partly on the territory, directly in the places of the Great War (for example the Shrine of Redipuglia, Dolina dei Bersaglieri, Ara Pacis of Medea) through the organization of minibuses and walking tours, and partly inside equipped municipal or school spaces.
Goals achieved:
• 4 workshop cycles + 1 awareness-raising cycle on the project themes carried out; using the Ateliers created-
vi of Comfort Zones already present in institutions;
• Involvement of about 180 children from 10 school complexes in the Upper and Lower Isonzo area
in the first three laboratory cycles and their families in the last short laboratory cycle and in the first awareness cycle;
• Organized the review of 10 sites / locations of historical memory of the Great War, and of 12 authors,
painters, writers and other witnesses of the time;
• Favored the collective reworking of the trauma experienced 100 years ago and stratified from generation to generation
tion, thanks to the strong symbolic power of contemporary arts; favored the process of closeness and understanding of the dynamics of the Great War and the post-war period on the part of the children and their families;
• Favored a better understanding of the phenomenon in an updated key, especially in the delicate age group 11-15 years (generated better interpretability of the present by the children involved, thanks to having fed critical perspectives on the past);
• Encouraged the transmission of memory in an intergenerational sense, created the involvement of young people in the rediscovery and maintenance of local memory;
• Created creative and laboratory educational interventions that through a critical knowledge of history have conferred critical thinking skills, facilitating the identification of identity and well-being especially in the 11-15 age group (facilitated the process of building identity in the group age of pre-adolescence, through expression, pro-activity and the relationship with the territory and its history);
• Significant contribution to the fight against educational poverty in the 11-15 age group in the territory of the Isonzo area;
• Favored well-being and inclusion, favored the recognition and appreciation of different skills, and developed a non-standardized approach to educational needs;
• Development of positive ties with the territory and with the community by the children involved, which leads to a lowering of conflict and social hostility.
