Cologni, E.(2016). ‘Reciprocal Maieutics: An Approach For The Artist As an Interface In an Intercultural Society’. In Pamela Burnard, Elizabeth Mackinlay, Kimberly Powell, The Routledge International Handbook of Intercultural Arts Research, London, New York, Routledge Publishing

 

to listen oneself listening…  (Dolci 1988:14

Remembering is a realization of belonging, even a social obligation  (Assmann, 2008: 114)

Can we learn to listen? Or to allow silence to speak to us? Can we visualize the space among us and inhabit it with our memories? These are among the questions raised by, and embedded in, my recent participatory art project ‘lo scarto‘, which evolved through the relational dynamics within the group. It was informed by the Reciprocal Maieutics Approach (RMA Dolci, 1973), a pedagogic process based on collective exploration of individuals’ experience and intuition. This enabled inter-subjective exchange, the activation of history and memories, and the construction of a narrative related to the current intercultural process taking place in Italy.

My creative process is here discussed as research as art practice, in relation to socially engaged and dialogic art, and communicative memory, to act as an interface in an intercultural society.