Where borders impede the act of belonging, imagination has turned out to be a powerful tool to write and fortify the invisible domain of a homeland whose material lives far away from here. This workshop will bring children to play in a journey of ecological imagination with the aim of creating a mythical land.

As the Syrian poet, lisa minerva luxx, asks “Is a country contained in the made-up borders of land? Or is a country contained in our bodies and therefore countries can walk on two feet wherever we take them?”

Lands are ecologies, these ecologies live also in the grains that got stuck in our socks when we left them, how can we rebuild worlds from them? The nature of these workshops is children-oriented, but this does not mean that adults cannot participate.

To Create an Ecology

1. The workshop space will be decorated with rugs and the art objects will be laid down on them – A4 paper, paints, crayons, colored pencils, clay, pens – there will also be a welcoming sculpture of an olive tree sculpture with ships hanging from them.
2. Children will enter the space and be invited on the rugs, a brief introduction and sharing of names will follow
3. Visualizing exercise – close your eyes, see the room that you are now inhabiting, and imagine that a bridge appears in this room. You decide to walk on this bridge – what does the bridge look like? Is it colorful? Is it solid? Fluffy like clouds? – imagine that this bridge brings you all the way across the desert, into the Mediterranean coast of Palestine in just a few steps. What does this land look like in your imagination?
4. The participants will then be introduced to the exercise and shown a short video of archival footage of Palestine to inspire their imagination. Was your imagined world similar to this one?
5. The children will be asked to imagine and select an object that they wish to connect with – an olive tree, a hill, a house, a hanging dress etc.
6. The children will then proceed in starting to create their object – they can choose between drawing, sculpting and writing (poetry/prose), or use all of them.
7. During the creative process, me and my team of two will be guiding the children (if hesitant) in creating their object.
8. Once completed their creative representation, the children will be asked to draw together a fictional map and place their objects all together on this map.
9. The children will receive their certificate of world-creators
10. Aftermath: The map and the creations of the children will be virtually exhibited with recited poems, and animated drawing and sculptures.

Utensils that the workshop provides

• Pens;
• Colored pencils;
• Welcoming Sculpture;
• A4 paper;
• Clay;
• Fictional Certificate;
• Archival Footage & Music;
• Rugs