Part’âge de garrigues en costières

Published by xavier on 17 November 2023

France

Introduction

Roseline, 86, and Yanis, 14, don’t seem to have much in common, and weren’t meant to meet. However, their paths will cross thanks to an intergenerational project around hip hop culture: Part’Âge. For several months, rap and graffiti workshops are organized in social centers, leisure centers and residences for seniors. They are animated by a rapper and a graffiti artist. Their objective: to carry out a collective project by involving young and old alike in the writing and recording of a piece, and the creation of a mural. Over the course of the workshops, they get to know each other, links are formed and sharing will go beyond hip hop…

Presentation of the project

The project took place in two parishes in the Gardises region, Marguerittes and Beaucaire, both of which have an aging population, a lack of social diversity and a need to promote social cohesion and encounters. Strengthened by the pandemic, the need for social ties in the country has grown. This project responds by encouraging dialog between two audiences that are not used to meeting: the young and the elderly, but also by opening them up to new artistic and cultural practices that will mark their sensibilities. Part’Age is an intergenerational project whose main objective is to get these two different audiences to discover the disciplines of hip hop culture that they know little or nothing about: rap and graffiti. Under a professional documentary filmmaker’s eye, a first group composes and records rap songs, while a second group creates graffiti murals. Over the course of the exchanges and the weeks, complicity between the two audiences is created. To conclude the project, several previews of the documentary are projected on the territory, allowing participants to meet and share other moments. The projects: · A mini album of 5 rap songs · A graffiti mural in Beaucaire · A documentary film · Sixty hours of workshops rich in exchanges between these two audiences · Screenings and debate on the documentary produced As part of this project, the LEADER program was a source of funding but also facilitated networking between the association, the municipalities and interested structures in the territory.

The emblematic character of the project

This project, atypical, may have seemed a bit crazy: to create a link between the generations in neighborhoods with significant social difficulties, around hip hop culture. However, it is this exemplary character that makes it a flagship project of our 2014-2022 programming. The territory of the GAL de garrigues en costières is located around the city of Nîmes which represents a strong polarity by concentrating the population (+50%), jobs, businesses and services, cultural life etc.). Furthermore, strengthening social cohesion is a major challenge in our territory and the LAG’s strategy aims to continue to be a welcoming and supportive territory, to participate in reducing inequalities and isolation, to develop projects for all that promote good living together and intergenerational ties, and to involve citizens as actors in the development of their territory. This project responds to these different challenges by creating links between the young and the elderly, two audiences whose interests seem distant but who nevertheless have the same need to share and learn from each other. Culture, dance, drawing, creation are the vectors of these moments of sharing. A documentary explains the process and the course of the project in a didactic way, so that these good practices can be transferred to other territories.

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