HOME CURATORIAL TEXTS FAILING IS AN ACHIEVEMENT ART IS LOVING MISTAKES EXHIBITION SETUP ATMOSPHERE INTERNATIONAL PREVIEW EVENTS TIMELINE IMPACT-ENGAGEMENT ART-ANGELS CREATIVE- TEAM PRESS-ROOM
KEY PRINCIPLES: “If we don’t fail, if we don’t make mistakes, we don’t know who we are.”
- Resilience as a key skill: falling down is an opportunity to learn to get back up and grow. The ability to face setbacks with resilience and learn from negative experiences is crucial to making sense of the reality of our existence.
- Iteration and continuous learning: fail fast, fail often. Handle defeats with care. This principle emphasizes the importance of experimenting, failing, and learning from every mistake. The process of iteration and continuous learning allows us to refine our skills and strategies in pursuing the goals we believe in.
- Acceptance of imperfection: it’s not mandatory to live being perfect. Accepting that error and imperfection are integral parts of the journey of our existence frees us from the oppression of perfectionism and allows us to embrace challenges with greater flexibility and humility.
CONTEXT ANALYSIS
The present moves at a faster pace than any previous era. The new economic-political and social dynamics, along with digitization, shape a changing reality that is complex to keep up with and risk alienating especially the young generation from developing a constructive and open critical spirit towards the changes we are undergoing as a society.
- Technology and digital connection: internet connections allow us to access a vast amount of information from around the world. On the other hand, they can also create dependency, isolation, and mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.
- Social pressures and performance: we are exposed to increasing social pressure to succeed. Social media and image culture contribute to promoting unrealistic ideals of perfection and success, fueling performance anxiety and self-criticism. These can lead especially young people to a constant search for external validation and a sense of inadequacy.
- Education and job market: access to higher education has become increasingly important to ensure successful job opportunities. However, this can also mean pressure to choose career paths that promise economic stability, even at the expense of passion and personal interest. The job market is becoming more competitive and volatile, with the need to acquire adaptable technical skills and soft skills.
- Social and environmental changes: we are increasingly aware of social and environmental issues, such as climate change, economic inequality, and human rights. Many young people, especially, are involved in activism and volunteering activities, trying to make a difference. However, this commitment can also generate a sense of frustration and disillusionment regarding the ability to bring about significant changes.
- Mental health and well-being: mental health has become an increasingly important issue, with an increase in cases of anxiety, depression, and other psychological disorders, especially among young people. The constant pressure to be perfect, combined with a lack of support and understanding from adults, can have serious consequences on mental health.
NEED ANALYSIS THAT MAKES THE INTERVENTION A PRIORITY
The Italian Pediatric Federation at the last scientific congress spoke of an increase, in the last two years, of 75% in attempted suicides among very young people. From a 2024 survey by Unisona Live and Unicef, sponsored by the Municipality of Milan and the Ministry of Education and Merit dedicated to secondary schools and the last year of the primary schools, it emerges that 75% of students “always” or “often” have episodes of stress caused by school, 44% of them feel inadequate and insecure due to hyper-competition at school, which makes it harder to learn for 17% of the participants.
In the contemporary society, increasingly focused on performance and success, many young people grow up with a mindset that shies away from failure and does not accept failure. This attitude is the result of a culture pattern that values excellence and stigmatizes mistakes, pushing young people to constantly perfect themselves and to fear failure as a social condemnation.
Falling is no longer seen as an opportunity to learn and grow but rather as a paralyzing pain that distances them from their goal of perfection. This attitude can have negative consequences on the mental health and emotional well-being of young people, as it pushes them towards a constant state of anxiety and self-criticism and makes them vulnerable to depression and insecurity. Furthermore, the inability to accept error and failure can limit their personal and professional development, as they are deprived of the valuable lessons that can be learned from mistakes and negative experiences.
To address this challenge, it is important to encourage young people to change the approach to vulnerability, teaching them that failure and mistakes are a natural part of the learning process and that there are opportunities to grow, to develop resilience, and to acquire new skills. Furthermore, it is essential to promote a culture that values the courage to face challenges and recognizes the value of the journey, not just the final result. Only through this approch young people can overcome the fear of vulnerability, failure and error, and embrace a more open and positive mindset towards the challenges we encounter in life. In general, this project also stimulates adults to review their approach and increasingly narrow point of view.
DESCRIPTION OF DIRECT AND INDIRECT BENEFICIARIES
The direct and indirect beneficiaries of the project include not only youngster people, their families and local communities, but also society as a whole and future generations. Investing in young people is crucial to ensuring a sustainable and inclusive future for all.
Direct:
- Young people and families: young people are the main direct beneficiaries of the policies, programmes, and resources of this project aimed at improving their well-being, personal development, and growth opportunities. This can have a positive impact on family well-being and economic prospects.
- Public and local communities: local communities directly benefit from the active involvement of stakeholders and especially young people, educational and artistic stimuli from the project, community development initiatives, and youth entrepreneurship. This contributes to creating a sense of belonging and social cohesion, improving the quality of life of the entire community.
Indirect:
- Society as a whole: quality education and training for youngsters and the public translate into positive change in public policies and social culture.
- Future generations: investing in youngsters and ensuring them growth opportunities also means ensuring a better future for future generations. Young people who have been supported and guided towards positive and meaningful life paths can become role models and mentors for successive generations, creating a chain effect of prosperity and development.
PURPOSE AND ALIGNMENT WITH THE INTERVENTION AREA
The project aims at offering an engaging and deeply meaningful artistic and cultural experience, fitting into a broader exploration’s context of the challenges and opportunities present in contemporary society. Through the dialogue and the collaboration between different forms of art and creative disciplines, we aim at:
- Address social pressures and the constant search for perfection: our project is committed to challenging social pressures and the relentless pursuit of the perfection. Using artistic narration as a tool, we question the unrealistic ideals of success and perfection promoted by contemporary society. We invite spectators to a critical reflection and understanding of the human diversity and complexity.
- Offer training and professional development opportunities: we recognize the importance of training and professional development for young people. Therefore, the project offers a stimulating and inclusive environment where they can explore and develop their creative and technical skills, encouraged to successfully tackle the challenges of the contemporary art market, striving to provide the necessary skills to emerge in the sector.
- Be a catalyst for social and environmental change: we are committed to being agents of social and environmental change through our artistic work. Our wish is to use art as a means for raising awareness and promoting activism on crucial issues such as climate change, social justice, and human rights. We encourage artists and the public to become active participants in shaping a fairer and more sustainable future for all.