March, 14th 2025
Designing interventions for a cross-border ‘under-30s-proof’ city: these are the recent activities of the youth participatory design group of the European Capital of Culture GO! 2025, For an Art#based citizenship, which started its activities in September 2024.
The protagonists of the project are some thirty young people aged between 17 and 25, who meet to develop active citizenship skills and expressive-creative skills aimed at giving rise to a process of co-budgeting and realisation of projects identified, constructed and implemented by the new generations.
The first phase saw the participants gather experiences in the field of contemporary art and local history, collecting initial experiences aimed at stimulating and inspiring future projects.
Activities included the staging of a performance in Nova Gorica with the artists Alice Mestriner and Ahad Moslemi, who introduced the theme of ‘placemaking’; Manca Bajec, with whom they worked on the theme of the monumentalisation of the border through counter-monument practices; and a workshop dedicated to reflecting on the colonial theme, opening up considerations on life between borders, with the Ivorian-French artist Abigail Sia. There will also be an excursion to discover the history between Gorizia and Nova Gorica by the association 47/04, which promotes it through multimedia tools, and a meeting dedicated to art in public space, participatory art and tactical urbanism.
In this second phase, which began in January 2025, the group will proceed with the design of its interventions, conceived for an ‘under-30s-proof’ cross-border city: interventions, projects and activities aimed at enhancing the cultural resources of the GO! 2025 European Capital of Culture, which will be presented to the EGTC GO and Zavod GO! 2025 commission to be implemented within the year.
In order to prepare in the best possible way, a delegation of the group will participate in a study visit to Portugal, in the Porto region, where co-budgeting paths have been successfully implemented by bringing young people and institutions to the same table - this will take advantage of the synergy with the European project FLIP, dedicated to the genesis of financial literacy skills for the public participation of young people.
A second delegation, on the other hand, will leave for Frankfurt to participate, together with EGTC experts and representatives of institutions, in the Double Cities Dialogue Forum, whose theme is ‘Dealing with Difference’.
