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| Mandala-Circus at the University of Tolima, Ibagué (Colombia) |
The ‘Dia-Tekhnē • Dialogue through Art’ methodology is a
technique for group facilitation which provides communication between
different people by complementing logos —the word— with tekhnē —art—.
Since its earliest experiment in Spring 2001, the
‘Dia-Tekhnē’ methodology has been developed at and from the Basque town of Gernika, double
symbol of the denunciation of war through Picasso's Guernica and of the
announcement of peace through the holy oak of civil liberties —“Europe's oldest
democracy”, George Steer's words. Supported by the Gernika Gogoratuz Peace Research Center, the Gernika Peace Museum and local NGOs, this methodology has served
many communities, mostly in Indo-Afro-Latin-America.
‘Dia-Tekhnē’ was initially created in the field of
plastic and visual arts as a conceptual and participative tool related to the
contemporary trend of “lifelike art” (so called by the creator of the happening, Allan Kaprow),
and has grown very close to militant research, a meeting point between activism and
academia.
The ‘Dia-Tekhnē . Dialogue through Art’ methodology is
applied in a double format of laboratory and workshop (“LabShop”): a laboratory for
analysis and scientific research and an artistic workshop. The ‘Dia-Tekhnē’
LabShop provides the structure and media, but not the theme and content, and can
therefore be adapted to any human group or community and enable them to manage their
conflicts creatively (with creativity and in action) and contribute positively to
their empowerment.
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| Mandala-Circus at the University of Tolima, Ibagué (Colombia) |
The ‘Dia-Tekhnē . Dialogue through Art’ methodology runs
along two consecutive phases: Relational Painting and the CreActive Assembly.
The purpose of Relational Painting is the
cohesion of the group or community prior to addressing the issue that calls for
intervention, while the purpose of the CreActive Assembly is the visual and, therefore,
‘literal’ analysis of the different points of view regarding this theme and the
design of transformation scenarios where all parties win. Relational Painting
promotes an affective change and the CreActive Assembly, an effective
change.
