In the autumn of 2017, after 47 European “Goethe”-Instituts had joined forces in the international project “Freiraum”, our association was invited to become a partner of the institute in Vilnius. Similar partnerships were established by all institutes in their respective countries, hoping to gain a better insight into their local contexts. This way, the project could better consider how freedom is discussed in different European cities and answer the questions: What are the biggest challenges for freedom? How is freedom perceived by communities in different European regions? What is the image of freedom in the minds of citizens, scientists and artists in each country, and why? An additional tool for broadening the understanding of the diversity of freedom(s) in different parts of the continent was to bring together several countries to plan joint events: For example, Lithuania was invited in the second phase of the initiative to analyse the project’s ideas together with a team from Romania.
Phase one of the project: What does freedom mean to us?
In close collaboration with the “Goethe”-Institut in Vilnius, we set ourselves the goal of examining the meaning of freedom in various Lithuanian communities. We are very pleased that we were able to successfully organise the workshop “Laisvė” (eng. “Freedom”) at the “Goethe-Institut” on the 23rd of September 2017. During the event, we invited its participants – members of the association and other young people of the country – to openly reflect on the understanding of freedom in their respective communities and their personal relationship to freedom. Finally, a common question was formulated by all participants that was intended to reflect the relationship of Lithuania as a whole to the concept of freedom.
We are grateful that four invited guests agreed to take part in our workshop: Berta Tilmantaitė (journalist, photographer, lecturer and one of the co-founders of Nanook Multimedia), Marius Repšys (film and theatre actor, awarded the “Auksinis scenos kryžius”-medal), Jonas Ohman (Swedish translator, journalist and founder of the NGO “Blue/Yellow”) and Marius Povilas Elias Martynenko (poet, writer and participant in multiple European poetry slam competitions). During their discussion, the guests openly shared their thoughts on the topic of freedom, focusing on freedom in the field of education – access to education and the importance of choice after leaving school.Finally, we visualised the main ideas of the workshop in a three-minute video and showed it at the international meeting of the “Goethe”-Instituts in Warsaw. The result can also be viewed here:
Phase two of the project: Vilnius and Bucharest
In order to plan the second phase of the project, the international meeting of the “Freiraum” partners took place in Warsaw from the 4th to 6th December 2017, during which our association was connected by lot with the Institute of Political Science at the University of Bucharest. The main issues raised by the partners in Romania in the context of the project were related to tolerance and freedom of expression in society. In September 2018, 11 project participants travelled from Lithuania to Romania to deepen their knowledge and understanding of these topics in the foreign country.
In Bucharest, the “Jaunimo debatai” team met with staff from the local “Goethe”-Institut, who helped us gain a deeper understanding of what tolerance means for different groups in Romanian society. During a visit to the Romanian Parliament, the Lithuanian group also had the opportunity to discuss the country’s main social and political challenges and consider possible solutions.
The second part of the visit to Romania was a trip to the city of Timisoara, the economic and cultural centre of western Romania. Of particular interest was the participation in the annual city ideas festival “PLAI”. During the festival, the Lithuanian participants not only organised discussions and games on the topic of togetherness, but also helped to organise various workshops on tolerance in Timisoara, a very multicultural city. The young festival participants were also encouraged by our team to make crafts that reflected their sense of tolerance.
Participating in the “Freiraum” project not only gave our association the opportunity to better perceive the peculiarities of Romanian society, but also forced us to deal with the Lithuanian context, both with more experience and with a wider range of perspectives.
