LA ÚLTIMA COMPARSA

FOTOGRAFIAS DE LA COMPARSA LATINOAMERICANA DE JUVENTUD Y ARTE COMUNITARIO 2009

Art and Youth have the potential to transform our America!

Comunication Team

The combination of art with the power of youth has the potential to transform our Latin American region through play, creativity and solidarity. This is one of the conclusions made during the third day of presentations at the First Latin American Youth and Community Arts Meeting in Guatemala. For five days this event brings together more than 200 young men and women from all over Latin America.

One experience was presented by the Argentinean, Inés Sanguinetti, of the Latin American Network of Art and Social Transformation (founded in 2003), who mentioned to participants that “the most important element of networks is collective participation in spaces of political incidence in order to generate public politics”.

Sanguinetti presented videos of four cases that exemplify the work of the network which brings together 65 organizations (all “full of young people”) from 11 countries.

A dancer by profession, Sanguinetti shared the experience of Escuela Profesional de Circo La Tarumba (Lima Peru), Asociación para el Sistema de Coros y Orquestas (SICOR) of Bolivia, the Artistic Collective Caja Lúdica (Guatemala) and the Fundación Crear Vale la Pena of Argentina, where Sanguinette is based.

“Art has always created community, for that reason art can transform the world” said the presenter who emphasized the importance of “working with the link between those who are excluded and those who are not”.

What is the transforming force of Arts? What is the role of social organizations within the development of Public Policies?, and What is the potential of a platform of Latin American Youth? These were questions produced by a practical exercise used by Sangunetti with the young participants.

The presenter said that networking is a “brotherhood of bodies, our hearts and our minds”, and emphasized the importance of “uniting the body, mind and spirit”.

The network is “strengthened by group exchange, by different ways of thinking and by participation” pointed out Sangunetti, who also said that “within this recognition, the most important element is the construction of networked territories and viewing art as an entity of social transformation beyond formal education”.

Manifestarte in Public Spaces

Tomas Castella shared the experience of Manifestarte, a project of free expression and recuperation of public spaces in Guatemala.

The presenter explained how this initiative rescued the “Cerrito del Carmen, an important space that was abandoned, now recuperated, not just for us but also for other groups”.

“Manifestarte began in 2003 during an historical event know as ‘Black Thursday’ when, due to the high level of political violence in the streets, artists decided against remaining silent and, informally, this project was born”.

Castella said that the vision of the project is that “art is a central axis of human development” and for that reason “we try to take art to the very people who have less access to it, those who are excluded because of a lack of resources”.

The project has a small recording studio and some audiovisual equipment “with which we are trying to support people with proposals of a non-commercial nature” said the presenter while emphasising the need to “reclaim the role and dignity of artists”.

Mafi Reyes, another representative of Manifestarte, said that an important element of the project has been going out in the city centre streets with young people. For example, each month they organise cycle rides during the night with more than 120 participants “with the aim of loosing their fear”.

Guanared: Synergy, Happiness and Tenderness

Olman Briceño, from Guanared, of Costa Rica, presented the experience of ‘networking’ and said that “synergy, happiness and play, as forms of creative living, within contexts of exclusion, genocide, natural disasters and social struggle have activated process of exchange that propose new models of working collectively that visualize the Central American region as unity in diversity”.

“It’s through permanent ‘artistic events’ and shared agendas that artistic-cultural networks can transcend borders, create links and promote a sense of territoriality and an identity that can help realize the population’s potential through their virtues: the spiral and the magic of our encounters and re-encounters” expressed Briceño.

Briceño said that the difficult situations in Central America such as the assassination of companions in Guatemala or the Coup in Honduras “impact heavily in our networks” and generate “social cohesion and promote a culture of peace” at the same time as “activating the participation and consciousness of the citizen”.

The presenter promoted a Central American unification and integration by means of amazement, connection, closeness, commitment, play, tenderness, ritual and ancestral respect.

Olman Briceño shared the experience of Guanared as “our mutual belief in arte and culture as a personal need that we always share with those by our side”. He also expressed that “Guanared places the central responsibility of work in the motivation of those prepared to live creatively and, within this world of possibilities, achieve their dreams”. He concluded the presentation by mentioning the values of the red: synergy, happiness and tenderness.

Between Wednesday 25^th and Sunday 30^th November the Latin American Youth & Community Arts Meeting brings together more than 250 young Latin Americans under the banner “Unity in diversity: where love, creativity and happiness germinates”.

Traducción:
Jon Ottley

Con comparsa y demostraciones artísticas finalizó el Encuentro Latinoamericano de Juventud y Arte Comunitario.

Con algarabía, tambores, zancos, saltimbanquis y el espíritu de más de doscientos jóvenes de diversas partes de Latinoamérica y el mundo finalizó la mañana del 30 de Noviembre el Encuentro Latinoamericano de Juventud y Arte Comunitario. El recorrido comenzó frente al parque de San Sebastián en la zona uno de la capital guatemalteca, al compás de la batucada, la cumbia y el mapalé. Una gran serpiente emplumada, creación colectiva de los talleres de comparsa con que contó el encuentro, recorrió las calles guatemaltecas hasta llegar al Parque Central, donde las distintos grupos de trabajo junto con los talleres hicieron gala de lo aprendido en estos 5 días de concentración y diversión.

Cánticos, poemas, bailes, artes circenses y escénicas fueron la tónica durante la presentación de los resultado alcanzados. La nota política la puso la lectura de una carta de adhesión firmada por las personas y redes convocadas, interpelando a las autoridades competentes del estado para que se apruebe cuanto antes la Ley de Juventud en el congreso guatemalteco.

La jornada finalizó con un retorno a Caja Lúdica, donde el color y la efervescencia juvenil fueron provocando en las calles un nuevo aire de libertad y de esperanza. La alegría, el amor, y cánticos llenos de motivación no se dejaron de sentir durante este recorrido. “Dicen que vino el fuego, pero vino la alegría” fue una de las coros donde más fuerte se sintió el brío renovador y esperanzador de este movimiento que, gracias a un trabajo en red, ya empieza a generar cambios importantes en las formas de vida de nuestros pueblos.

¡Latinoamérica está cambiando!

Por Francisco Murillo

Hace unas horas, cuando amaneció, los periódicos y la tele llenaron Latinoamérica de indicadores de corrupción, tráfico de drogas, robos, asesinatos, pobreza y demás. Es el desayuno de cada mañana en nuestra región.
Mientras usted, posiblemente, terminaba de leer el diario o ver las noticias de la mañana, más de 200 jóvenes reunidos un instituto público en Guatemala, en Centroamérica, en Latinoamérica, se preparaban para iniciar su jornada en el Primer Encuentro Latinoamericano Juventud y Arte Comunitario.

Periodistas ciudadanos informan al mundo sobre el encuentro

En una experiencia inédita, un equipo de jóvenes se capacitó como periodistas ciudadanos y dieron una cobertura intensa tras apropiarse de las nuevas tecnologías de la información y la comunicación pues transmitieron en vivo a través de Internet sobre todos los detalles del Encuentro de Juventud y Arte Comunitario.
Transmisión de vídeo en vivo por medio de la tecnología del videostreaming, grabación de videoclips, fotografías, notas informativas y hasta poemas fueron transmitidos constantemente a través del blog oficial del evento, el cual se mantuvo actualizado con diversas noticias a lo largo de las jornadas.