Each day combined energizers, reflective discussions, and artistic activities that encouraged participants to question ingrained stereotypes, explore their own identities, and experiment with new forms of expression. Group conversations alternated with body-based exercises, theatre and performance work, visual art, and photography. Each active day ended with a shared reflection circle to help integrate experiences and impressions. The atmosphere was built on trust, openness, and a willingness to go deeper.
What stayed with us the most was the creation of collective artworks – participants collaboratively prepared performances, crafted photographic stories, and painted canvases where every hand left a trace of shared creativity. A powerful experience was also the movement-based exercise that demonstrated how power imbalances and privileges play out in practice, often deeply rooted and yet commonly overlooked. Without words, without a script. And still (or perhaps because of that), it became one of the most transformative moments of the program.
At the end of the week, all the creations were shared in a gallery walk. Not for an audience but for ourselves. To witness everything we had created, expressed, and processed in just a few days. It wasn’t about the final product, but about the journey we took together.
Everyone left with something different: a new perspective, a method to try in their community, or simply the reassuring feeling of not being alone. But what came up again and again was a sense of gratitude – for a space where it was okay to be open, playful, and vulnerable. We left with greater sensitivity to ourselves and others, and a shared understanding that openness is not weakness, but strength. And that change doesn’t start in the system – it starts within each of us.
