Flying Duets is a personalized platform that actively brings together people of different social and cultural identities through art. This is an initiative that activates a process of creative social “osmosis”. It opens up a dialogue between two people at a time, within a special space, where they can interact freely beyond social norms and rigid frames of thought. It is an attempt to challenge pre-existing perceptions and prejudices, through unmediated human contact. An opportunity to build social bridges, through a free co-creation process, in a dynamic and ever-changing environment.
“Duets” are formed by people with different social origins and backgrounds: different social status, ethnicity, cultural values and physical abilities. Two people who rarely have the opportunity to meet, exchange views, interact and create a “bond” in their daily lives, within the existing socio-political context and rhythms. Regular sessions are flexible in format and are based on exploration and experimentation through movement, as a basis for transformative learning “through each other”. This is the starting point for coexistence, communication and co-creation.
The platform aims to facilitate tolerance, understanding and acceptance of both self and the other, promoting constructive conflict resolution, non-violent communication, reconnection with the body and expression through movement. The program has already been activated mainly in the art research center Schloss Broellin (Germany) and Communitism (Greece), as well as in various other places in Athens.
It is supported by the START — Create Cultural Change program, an initiative of the Robert Bosch Foundation, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki and the German Association of Sociocultural Centers, with the support of the John S. Latsis and the Bodosakis Foundation.
More: https://valkanioti.wixsite.com/vassia-valkanioti/flying-duets
