The project entitled “Kooperarock: the art of cooperation” has been presented on the Eskoriatza campus

Since January of this year, and beginning with a process of reflection directed by the Lanki Institute of Mondragon University, the project has focused on analyzing the fundamental values of cooperativism. For this purpose, collaboration was established among the University of the Basque Country, various agents of the social and supportive economy, social activists, the cooperatives of the MONDRAGON Group, and various free media. Furthermore, the Teatro Paraíso Antzerkia company from Vitoria will make use of the results of this process of reflection to create a work that will bring the values of cooperativism to Basque schools, including those in the French Basque Country, through dramatization.

 

To date, the management of the activities tied to the Kooperarock project has been the responsibility of the Lanki Institute. These activities include meetings for reflection organized by the centers for cooperative studies GEZI, MIK and IEC, all of which belong to the University of the Basque Country; advances to reinforce social activism achieved in conjunction with the Olatukoop and REAS networks, which work for a social and supportive economy; and topics examined by the Arrosa Sarea federation of free radio in the Basque Country, whose results appear in the Argia blog and on the Info7 webpage.

 

Teatro Paraíso Antzerkia continues down the same path paved by the Lanki Institute, and will present its project on a total of three dates: the premiere of the documentary Belaunaldien arteko elkarrizketak [Intergenerational Dialogues] will take place on October 5 on the Aretxabaleta campus; there will be a preview on December 15-16 in Arrasate of the cooperative work created by Teatro Paraíso; and the premiere will be on December 27 in San Sebastian.

 

On October 5 on the Aretxabaleta campus, the short documentary film produced by Kooperarock, Belaunaldien arteko elkarrizketak [Intergenerational Dialogues], will be shown. This documentary brings to the debate table three men and three women of three different generations who participated in the short film.

 

 

Teatro Paraíso Antzerkia takes up the legacy left to them by Lanki, thus taking over the second phase of the Kooperarock project, the phase that is based on creation and artistic intervention.

 

In its 40-year career, Teatro Paraíso Antzerkia has become a national and international model, not only in early childhood theater, but also as an organization with a definite commitment to artistic education and to the creation and education of audiences.

 

Thus, the contribution of the Alavan company to the Kooperarock project can be found in two different but complementary areas: in the creation of an original theatrical work, and in artistic intervention in five Basque schools. The purpose of this contribution is to bring the arts into schools as a tool for cooperation, and to popularize the idea of cooperativism through creation.

 

 

The Intervention Team will visit five schools in the next few months: Kirikiño (Bilbao), San Prudencio (Vitoria-Gasteiz), Amara Berri (San Sebastian-Donostia), Saint Martin D'Arberue (Northern Basque Country) and Arizmendi (Alto Deba). The Arizmendi school deserves special mention as the largest Basque school in the Basque Country and one whose goal is to help in the development of cooperative Basque-speaking people who know how to respond to different life situations.

 

Teatro Paraíso Antzerkia has designed a specific methodology for developing the work of Intervention. This methodology assumes an overall knowledge and conceptualization of various authors with which the company has worked to date. The Cooperative Methodology and the Methodology of Dramatic Expression and of the Pedagogical Situation, both developed by Giselle Barret of the University of Paris III, are some of the paths that will be followed by the Intervention Team together with the children and teaching staff involved in this project.

 

 

Kooperarock is a unique project in which the dramatic work is based on the contributions of the children involved in the intervention process and is inspired by the knowledge about cooperativism that the Alavan company acquired through its previous work with Lanki. The creative work of the artistic team stems from the thematic, theatrical, and dramatic material generated by the cooperative legacy.

 

Under the provisional title of Kooperarock, the members of the artistic team, led by dramatist and screenwriter Maxi Rodríguez (7 vidas, Carne de Gallina) and actors and actresses Amaia Salazar, Maitane Goñi, Aitor de Kintana, and Ander Basaldua, are already working on a dynamic and poetic play in which 4 characters of different origins meet and confront each other. This play for 7-to-12-year-old children will premiere in San Sebastian on December 27.

 

In the photo, from left to right: Saioa Torre, director of Itsasargi (Donostia-San Sebastian 2016 [DSS2016], a year-long series of cultural events); Pilar López, director of Teatro Paraíso Antzerkia; Xabier Paya, cultural director of DSS2016; Bixente Atxa, Dean of MONDRAGON UNIVERSITY; Igor Ortega, director of the Lanki Institute; and project coordinator Maider Iriarte from the Lanki Institute.