Iraq - Building relationships through art with Walking Arts NGO

VERSIONE ITALIANA

The second year of the Here Now Together Project began on 1 July 2021.
Between summer and autumn there were numerous initiatives carried out by young Iraqis, who animate Walking Arts NGO - Art, Culture & Heritage.

In Iraq, the controversial elections took place in October, which saw very low participation and which certainly did not represent the profound change to which the protests of young people that began in 2019, heavily repressed and in which many demonstrators lost their lives, aspired.

The corrupt factions and militias of the various local potentates try to stay in command, surfing the geopolitical interests of the various regional and international powers that have made Iraq a military and economic battleground in the instability of the entire area.

"From above" it is clear no social change will come.
“Below”, in civil society, among the young people stubbornly continue to open roads and paths of change.

ISF - Baghdad

Forums, happenings, social activities, communication practices, meeting places continue to proliferate, creating a rainbow of practices and the affirmation of human, gender, environmental and freedom rights.
In these real and living spaces, the path of Walking Arts NGO is inserted, a free and moving community of Iraqi artists, young people, girls and boys.

The plans intersect: from training to learn how to best use artistic languages, both as an employment outlet and as a social practice, to the realization of cultural events, to the creation of networks and singerie, which in many cases go beyond the borders of the Governorates and of the same country.

Mosul - Concerto

Summer 2021
After the recordings of the new CD and the docufilm, carried out during the artistic residency of the Ensemble Mashakht in Sulaymhanya in June 2021, the online sessions continued with the experts Valeria Fabris, director and Francesco Fabiano, expert in audio techniques, to supervise the production of the documentary film and the CD that will make up the Multimedia box Mshakht A Journey, which will be premiered inPadua on 1 December 2021 and in January 2022 in Iraq.

Musicoterapia - Campi rifugiati Erbil

October / November 2021
On 5 October, the music therapy expert Chiara Patronella and Maestro Luca Chiavinato left Italy
Training in Music Therapy
Chiara is the expert, who is carrying out the entire path in Music Therapy which began in December 2019 and continued in 2021.
The training took place in two parts: a theoretical part from 7 to 11 October in the Artistic Coworking managed by Walking Arts in Duhok and a part of activitiesin the Erbil refugee camps from 12 to 17 October 2021.
In the theoretical part, the working methods that can be useful in order to build laboratory activities with children, teenagers and / or people with disabilities were deepened.
In the practical part, the participants moved to Erbil where, in collaboration with Terre Des Hommes - Italy, they carried out workshops for children aged 2 to 15 years in the UNHCR refugee camps and centers, carrying out activities in Rashtii, al Qushtapa Camp, al Kasnazan and Harsham Camp.

Mosul - Concerto

Concerts and events on site in collaboration with civil society
* From 27 to 30 October an artistic residence was created in Erbil which ended with a concert in Mosul at the Urban Planning Museum of the city. The initiative was supported by the WMF, Word Monument Found.
* On 27 October a concert was held within the participation in the Water Forum in Erbil.

ISF - Baghdad Maratona

* From 27 October to 6 November a Walking Arts delegation participated in the Iraqi Social Forum, bringing their experience to the various workshops, all very well attended.

ISF - Worshop Diritti lavoratori

In the final session dedicated to the defense of workers’ rights, the Charter of the rights of show business workers was approved. Walking Arts also participated in the Forum Closing Festival and the Baghdad Marathon, an important event for socializing and free expression of Iraqi society.
* On November 8, Walking Arts NGO took part in the eighth edition of the Kurdish Social Forum in particular in a workshop on the social role of art and played at the final concert.

A whirlwind of events that create opportunities to share the importance of artistic languages ​​in social change.

In the autumn months, Walking Arts strengthened relations with numerous international organizations with which numerous activities have been set up for 2022.
The next few months will be full of activities: from music therapy in prison, where song writhing techniques will be experimented and the songs made will be published on a specific CD, to activities related to the mental health sector and in the field of environmental protection, as well as like musical animation for Human Rights Defenders. The possibility of contributing to the birth of the Academy of Arts in Basra and to numerous other initiatives in the Nineveh Plain and other Governorates is also being verified.

Walking Arts NGO ... in cammino!

2022 will also be the year of the first spring edition of Walking Camp, an independent festival of the arts, a great opportunity for exchange between young people, between the various realities of the country committed to building a different present through artistic languages.