Ethnography and "Colective Theatrical Creation". A decade of "artivisme" with homeless in Seville (Spain)

Abstract

The shortcomings in public policies related to homelessness require alternatives to be sought that turn homeless people into active agents rather than treating them as passive subjects caught up in excessive bureaucracy and dependent on handouts. This paper describes the logics, achievements and challenges of a research and artivism project developed over the course of a decade with homeless people in Seville (Spain). The aim was to understand and help to reverse their situation of exclusion, and particularly the institutionalization of homeless people in care centres. Framed as Participatory Action Research, the project articulated two methods: on the one hand, Collective Theatrical Creation; and, on the other, Ethnography, understood as a practice of coexistence, dialogue and experimentation. The original proposal has enabled certain obstacles experienced by homeless people to be problematized, communicated and deconstructed, generating spaces for creativity, education and action research, through the creation, performance and reception of theatrical productions, as well as their promotion on the internet and social media. The results are empowering and enabling homeless people, very identified with a process of creation established through mutual learning of the ontological, epistemological, axiological and emotional assumptions of scientists and homeless people.