Arts Lab 4.0: Month V, Sara Torrijos - A complex experience

In my first day of the fifth month I was in Cluj celebrating the new year with Federica, Chiara, Maja, Wasan, Ataota and other friends. It was really nice to visit Cluj, I really like the canal that cross the city and also seeing the Christmas decoration at night. It was really nice to spend time with my friends, getting warm with the typical spicy hot wine that are served in the Christmas market, enjoying street concerts and discovering the old city centre.

When we arrived at home, in Târgu Frumos, I was really excited to see my cat, Tormenta. I was far from her for more than two weeks and I really missed her. She was good, only she lost a little weight from the stress of being away from me, but now is okay, totally perfect.

Almost without realizing it, we started to prepare the next topic “Rroma Alternative Museum”. For this occasion, Chiara and I decided to collaborate and create a complex experience through the emotions with labs inspiring from magic, theater and emotional intelligence.

The result was amazing, we realized that all the methodology which we worked with it was really helpful for our students and ourselves. We could talk about bullying, express emotions and self-awareness exercises.

Finally for the final exhibition we developed an experiential game composed of a round discussion table and a tactile board called “Map of the Emotions”. The participants of this exhibition through energizing exercises, a board game (composed of video, music, testimonials and dialogues), palmistry and tarot card game, went on a journey to go deep into their emotions, identify, name and relate them.

In conclusion, it was a very revealing month on a personal level and very inspiring, I realized more and more that there is less and less time left for the end and this makes me feel sad. I want to extend as much as possible the happiness that this experience has given me.

Sara Torrijos from Spain is doing a long-term volunteering project in our organisation, under Arts Lab 4.0, a project funded by European Solidarity Corps @suntsolidar.eu, a programme of the European Union.