I spent the last 10 days in Stockholm; Alby – a suburb in Botkyrka Municipality within Stockholm- and Falun, a city 3 hours away from Stockholm, best known for its copper mining. The reason was a Business in Residence programme, enabled by the European Cultural Foundation (ECF) and organized by KLUMP Subtopia, an incubator for cultural and social initiatives.
Here's what I learned.
migrationlab's "Welcome to The Living Room" concept was selected one of 50 most daring and innovative ideas, that uses culture in order to build inclusive communities in Europe. And I was invited to further work and develop this idea at the Idea Camp, one of the most inspirational programmes I've been to this year.
Our collective challenges nowadays is to learn to live outside our comfort zones. To acknowledge that in order to be able to live together in all our variety in a common space we need to make a change about how we look at and think about each other. We need to be kind with ourselves and each other. We need to learn and think before placing judgements. We need to start learning to see the beauty and benefits in the diversity not only problems and burdens. We need to open our eyes and minds if we want to peacefully coexist in Europe from now on.
While you are out of your comfort zone and everything you know, you need to practice understanding, you need to be able to carry your roots with you while the new you is taking over. You need to understand who you are and where you're coming from. Otherwise "you" becomes <me> and "they" become <they> and in between is just hate and anger.
4 young Romanian professionals teamed up in order to tackle the issues of discrimination and abuse the Filipino domestic workers face in Romania and give them a voice. Produse Domestice (Domestic Products) is a play about domestic work and migration which premiered in Bucharest on October 17th, with a second representation being set for October 25th at WASP-Working Art Space and Production. The leading actress is a Filipino engineer who came to Romania to work as a housekeeper. The play is based on the true story of Ynia and is produced by young Romanian theatre director Ioana Paun, writer Xandra Popescu, journalist Laura Stefanut and artist/composer Catalin Rulea.
I can’t properly start this project without writing about how it even came to life.
Earlier this year, I moved to a new country, The Netherlands, after spending the past 6 and a half years of my life in Vienna, Austria. It was a big step to take, as meantime Austria became my home, my other home besides the Romanian one, but as equally important. It felt right to leave though and joining my Austrian partner in The Hague played an essential role in my decision.
