Participatory art practices
For Mirmica, participatory creation is a very cross-cutting area because it is an intrinsic feature of different projects. If it is true that we recognize in artistic expression a tool to promote beauty in the real contexts in which we operate, and if it is true that this beauty - often fragile, hidden, at the margins - for us in turn creates well-being and social cohesion, then we cannot fail to recognize the value of the participatory and experiential dimension of the creative process. And, conversely, the value of the artistic and expressive dimension in a process of shaping a person, a community.
Sometimes Mirmica, together with relevant stakeholders, develops a project with the goal of creating something: a video, sound creations, a traveling narrative, a performance, an installation, a cultural animation. In these cases, the "participation" component is itself part of the creation process: the people, groups, organizations, and communities with whom Mirmica works are involved in the work from its beginnings, or are gradually implicated in the process of ideation and writing. Or, when it comes to a field that we define as closer to that of "artistic production," we invite authors to integrate their research with types of practices that involve more direct involvement of the citizenry.
At other times, however, the authors' work is integrated into a larger project: a training, workshop, organizational and community development course. In these cases, too, we claim the importance of attention to the expressive and artistic process as a means of enhancing the specificities and voices of all those involved.
Therein lies the meaning of the search for what we call participatory creation practices: in co-creating, creating with, creating together, in a dimension of listening to and composing a plurality of voices that give back to the outside world in a shared form a human and collective geography, the sense of a more intimate process and experience.
