Adina Taubman, Director of Creative Activism
Barcelona artist, Maria reflects on the impact Adina’s Creative Activist Lab program creates.
Dear Adina,
As Breaking Walls artists, every year’s Summit appears to us as a unique opportunity to learn great new things about the world and its different cultures but also about ourselves. Life during and after the COVID pandemic has been rough. As a shared global experience, we all lived these past three years with uncertainty and in a constant learning process. We had to adapt to the challenges that the unknown presented us with. All through this difficult process, full of ups and downs, we were accompanied by our Breaking Walls family. Everyone put their effort into making the Virtual 2020 and 2021 Summits possible and allowed for an in-person 2022 Yerevan Summit, too. Looking forward to the Palermo 2023 Summit makes us, as Breaking Walls brothers and sisters, reflect on all the way we have come since March 2020. And, how all through the Summits we have been able to grow as strong and enlightened youth with a passion for art and commitment towards our local and global communities. This is especially enhanced by your work, Adina, with the Creative Activist Lab from 2020 to 2022, and very soon into your 2023 Lab!
Adina, your Creative Activist Lab makes growing out of the preconceived limits we have about ourselves and others look easy. Your creative vision of art and life becomes something very inspiring to everyone who participates in your Creative Activist Lab. By providing a new way of conceiving the creative process – with a focus on the life of different activists that contribute to the community or by encouraging us to become one ourselves – a new horizon for action appears for us. Given the context of the different years, the meaning of your Lab has developed through each Summit.
During the 2020 and 2021 Virtual Summits, we came from a place in which we were confined to the limits of our house and needed to learn how to cohabit with ourselves – with everything this entailed individually and socially. Thus, being granted the opportunity to develop a creative activism campaign on the issues affecting our community or getting to know an activist one to one, was extremely meaningful. Getting to create from such an isolated place with the purpose of improving our surroundings collectively felt like a light in the dark. Your vision taught us to touch the strength within ourselves and how powerful we are when together.
The 2022 Yerevan Summit had a totally different connotation. Having overcome isolation and being able to physically be with each other again enabled us to establish connections at a whole new level. This time through your creative process, we could explore a new level of depth when understanding the life of others and getting inspired by their work. Your idea for us to interview and interpret the life and words of an activist who contributes to their community was perfect in showing us the scope of creativity in everyone’s core. Getting to know ourselves is easy when we are able to take part in your Creative Activist Lab, not only as artists but as committed youth and creative activists.
We are very thankful for the source of inspiration and knowledge that your Creative Activist Lab gives us. Your passion expands our limits when taking action and developing projects, and has an impact in every aspect of our lives – from the artistic side to the person we want to become every day and in our futures. Thank you. dear Adina!
With love and respect,
Maria and your entire Breaking Walls global family