ARTE DE MAYO
2003 | 2007 Josè Leon Suarez, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
An art project aimed to the social transformation and realized together with the community association 8 de mayo. An artistic and sustainable micro-production of small design creations, in collaboration with Comercio Justo, network of [Fabbriche Recuperate Argentine], the Communitarian Association 8 de Mayo.
Autobiographical laboratories for drawing, photography and serigraphy, for children and teenagers at 8 de Mayo.
“8 de Mayo” is situated on the area of an illegal landfill, 1.100 sq. meters where 1.200 families live. It is one among the so-called villas miserias, with the highest grade of poverty within the entire metropolitan area of Buenos Aires. The life of the vast majority of its inhabitants has been scarred by the trash itself, either because houses have been built in an area of open-air landfill, or because trash has became their main source of living.
The Arte de Mayo project is part of a process of local development which has been brought forward by the Asociacion Civil Proyecto Comunitario 8 de Mayo for the reassembling of the community social network of the territory of Reconquista, which has been dismantled by such a state of poverty and vulnerability, with the aim to identify a real solution for this emergency. Arte de Mayo was born to promote the participation of children and teenagers in the activities of the community of belonging, with the goal of supporting and making them active individuals in the process of political and social construction of their very community, improving their life conditions and promoting an active social participation. More than 100 local children and teenagers took part to the project.
Supported by: Istituto di Cooperazione Economica Internazionale, Fundacion ProNinio, Fondazione Telefonica.
EXHIBITIONS: Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires | Reggio Film Festival, Reggio Emilia | Camera dei Deputati, Vicolo Vandina, Roma | IV edizione della rassegna Vicino Lontano, Premio letterario internazionale Tiziano Terzani, Udine.
