TITLE: Futures in Freedom. Reintegr-Arte Space

Funder: Valencia City Council
Total budget: €15,747.50
Grant amount: €12,598
Start date: 1/12/2023
End date: 11/30/2024

"Futures in Freedom. Reintegr-Arte Space" is a project promoted by the Foundation for Justice with the aim of improving the quality of life of inmates at the Antoni Asunción Hernández Penitentiary Center in Valencia. Through an intervention that combines personal, community, and educational development, the project aims to strengthen self-esteem, emotional skills, and coexistence among inmates, while consolidating skills acquired in previous projects, particularly in the audiovisual field. The core of this edition focuses on the participatory creation of a documentary that narrates the experience of a dance workshop within the center, a pioneering activity in the penitentiary system of the Valencian Community. The documentary was conceived, recorded, and produced by the inmates themselves, integrating dance workshop participants and those who participated in audiovisual training processes in previous editions, in a collective exercise of memory, body expression, and shared storytelling.

In addition to this audiovisual production, the project incorporates a second line of work focused on reflection, emotional management, and subjective exploration. Based on the viewing of the documentary, group sessions are held that address how stereotypes influence the way we are and relate, generating spaces of trust that encourage the free expression of emotions. These sessions are supported by game dynamics, Theatre of the Oppressed techniques, and group facilitation methodologies, seeking an intimate connection between the body, memory, and identity of the participants. The entire process is designed to foster both individual expression and collective creation, in a caring and safe environment, guided by professionals with experience in artistic and psychosocial intervention in contexts of deprivation of liberty.

The project also includes the presentation of the documentary at the Castellón II Penitentiary (Albocàsser), with the aim of extending this best practice to other penitentiary centers. The proposal has the support of the Picassent center itself, which positively values its creative, collaborative, and deeply thought-out approach, as well as its ability to generate dialogue and reflection outside the penitentiary, in spaces such as the Humans Fest – International Film and Human Rights Festival. The innovative dimension of the project is evident in its open and multidisciplinary methodology, in the use of art as a tool for emotional and social empowerment, and in the results achieved: on the one hand, a documentary that makes visible a transformative activity in a highly masculinized context; on the other, a series of participatory workshops that provide real tools for personal development and future social integration for the participants. All of this is based on a gender, diversity, and human rights perspective that also embraces realities far removed from heteronormativity, promoting inclusion and the common good.

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