IT’S OURS

How do you build a square that really belongs to those who inhabit it? The project promoted by Es (tu)yo and the Higher Technical School of Engineering and Industrial Design of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, explores this question in the Madrid neighborhood of Lavapiés-Embajadores through a process of participatory research and action that connects art, science and education. The initiative brings together students, the migrant community, the neighbourhood and cultural institutions in the area to analyse the neighbourhood’s eco-social challenges and activate meeting spaces that strengthen inclusion and citizen participation. Es Nuestro is articulated through three learning platforms that allow us to diagnose social and environmental needs from an intercultural perspective. During the process , tools such as intercultural mediation and applied theatre are used, an artistic practice that uses theatre to address social problems and facilitate dialogue between people with diverse experiences. The project also develops a methodological guide that combines documentary theater techniques, based on testimonies and real experiences, with STEAM educational methodologies that integrate science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics, with a service-learning approach, with the aim that it can be replicated in other educational and community contexts. The initiative is aligned with SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities and is part of the Citizen Art axis of the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation, which promotes art as a tool to strengthen social cohesion, democratic participation and the collective construction of knowledge.