EUDEC (European Democratic Education Conference) is:
- A Conference that happens once a year in different parts of Europe
- An annual meeting of a widespread community
- A temporary community
EUDEC18 happened in August 2018 in Crete in Greece.
The Conference is a situation where all ages have full voting rights, to a certain extent full civil rights. It is a situation where ages are not systematically differentiated and separated.
EN, an inter-age theatre collective, in collaboration with artists and educators from all over Greece, created EN EUDEC (IN EUDEC) to soak up the potential and share what happens when this potential is safeguarded.
The Conference was for us a celebration of equity in practice.
Our field is art beyond cultural, geographical, social, age and specialization divisions and our structure is based on democratic council without age discrimination. Our tools are theatrical alchemy, creative circus, dance, acrobatics, improvisation, music, song, puppet, shadow and object theater, fine arts and crafts, storytelling and games.
In seven days of interconnected workshops, circles, projects and performances, weaving everything we did into the overall structure of the conference, we practiced democracy outside the frame of adultism.
We are inspired by the potential of our physical, mental and creative skills and by how unlimited their evolution can be. We are particularly concerned with the expansion and cultivation of the creative relationships between ages.
- What is democracy from the perspective of young citizens who normally have no say?
- What happens when their voices are heard?
- What role does art play in all of this?
Within the Open Space we had a basecamp where all ages (including babies and toddlers, accompanied or not) spent their time freely or taking part in workshops.
EN EUDEC members are:
- Gypsy Moth puppet theater
- NAMASTE Shadow Theater
- Pep Beltran Wandering Museum of civilisations
- Ζoe Valerie
- Firdin Μigdin
- 3 laloun
- BeDo (theatre group)
- Amanda Gerarhaki (storyteller)
- Eva Nikiforou (actor, Emotional Practice teacher, Nevma theater)
- Stergios Papakonstantinou (physics teacher MSc Philosophy of Science and rock climber)
- Margarita Kambouri (PE teacher and animator)
- Rena Kastanaki (potter)
Workshops:
- A yoga fairytale (BeDo)
- Streetgames (BeDo)
- Our Dance (BeDo)
- Ceramics Workshop (Rena Kastanaki)
- Theatrical games (Zoe Vlassi, Firdin Mignin)
- Puppeteering..! (Zoe Vlassi, Firdin Mignin)
- Playing and experimenting with Physics (Stergios Papakonstantinou)
- EN (Zoë Valerie)
- Family Games (Margarita Kampouri)
- Learning to play as a team (Margarita Kampouri)
- Discovering the World (Margarita Kampouri)
- The Country of the shadows (Pep Beltran)
- Puppet theater-research workshop (Gypsy Moth PuppetTheater)
- Karagiozis shadow puppet making Workshop (Namaste)
- Learning out of curiosity! (Pep Beltran)
- The stories hidden inside objects (Pep Beltran)
- Tai-chi (3 laloun)
- Seriously…let’s play (3 laloun)
- “The Garden of Emotions” (Eva Nikiforou)
- “Red thread tied, wrapped on the spinning wheel, kick it so it turns, and the story begins…” (Amanda Gerarhaki)
Performances:
- “Around the laundry in 30 minutes” (Gypsy Moth PuppetTheater)
- “Karagiozis and the enchanted tree” (Namaste)
- “Lemonia” (Nevma Theater)
- “Flox, the box and the clouds” (Firdin Migdin)
- “Peace” (Aristophanes, 3 laloun)
- “Alkyone’s Travels” (BeDo)