TheAlbero
TheAlbero is an artistic collective born from the work of ImaginAction social arts facilitators Uri Noy Meir and Ilaria Olimpico.
It is a space for exploring theatre and arts as tools for personal and social transformation. We acknowledge that inner and outer transformation mutually influence and inform one another, and both are instrumental in challenging unequal power structures.
Theatre and Stories that Reconnects
TStR is an emerging Social Arts methodology and practice for reconnection with the self, others and nature. These three dimensions (self – personal, others – social, and Nature – ecological) are inseparable and intertwined.
TStR moves through a spiral-shaped map, beginning with Earth, where we express gratitude, clear space, and acknowledge our gifts. We then transition to Water, where we honor our pain for the world and our wounds, engaging in felt sensing and co-sensing of internal and external realities. With courage, we traverse Fire, discovering medicine and seeing with new eyes, symbolizing and co-creating. Finally, we proceed to Air, breathing fresh air, dreaming, and co-evolving.
WHY We live in a moment of polycrises, uncertainty, complexity, polarization. More than ever, the world needs to rediscover connection and interconnection of personal, social, and ecological. Connection is why we’re here; it is what gives purpose and meaning to our lives.
SOURCES The map of TStR is inspired by: Work that Reconnects (Joanna Macy), Focusing (Eugene Gendlin, Ann Weiser Cornell), Theory U (Otto Scharmer) / Social Presencing Theatre (Arawana Hayashi), Aesthetic of the Oppressed (Augusto Boal), Dragon Dreaming (John Croft), The Medicine next to the wound (Hector Aristizabal).
TStR is in service of supporting the transition from a power-over society towards a life-sustaining culture of Peace, cultivating deep listening, creativity and empathy.
We have forgotten to deeply see, to deeply hear, to deeply feel. We need to reclaim our synesthetic perception and awaken diverse languages to access other kinds of knowledge.
The aesthetic distance creates a safe and creative space where we can expand our understanding, and can be with the not knowing.
The focus on “stories” brings a post-colonial narrative questioning, an interdisciplinary healing narrative perspective, and an ancient/fresh practice of listening and sharing. Stories can be told with oral and written words, bodies, images and voices.
Theatre makes visible the invisible. Embodiment (or in-bodiment) can open up to a different source of knowledge. Symbolization gives new perspectives and a deep understanding.
The intention to reconnect with Nature, led to the artistic projects like In the Name of the Mother, Voicing Gaia, COB 1 in collaboration with ImaginAction and Bestiary in collaboration with the Network of Work that Reconnects.
Collaborative projects and learning journeys rooted in the multidimensional reconnection, on personal, social and ecological levels, can help communities and organizations rediscover our interbeing with others and with the Earth.
Story Lab
A tool by TheAlbero, a set of cards to unlock the power of imagination and storytelling, promoting creativity, listening and sharing.
It is a powerful and simple tool in the hands of those who facilitate groups, working in social, educational, and cultural settings.
Imagination is the door for other possible worldS.
Images are polysemic and evocative. In this set of cards, the images represent the imaginative resources that spark stories.
They are the artistic product that combines the realistic style of photography and the imaginative style of illustration, suggesting a journey into the frontier between real and imaginary.
Any interpretation of the image is welcomed, expanding the space for possible coexistence of different meanings.
Stories, told in a circle, create a shared fire.
Participatory storytelling is: an exercise in creativity; a practice of sharing and conviviality; a training in listening and welcoming the imagination of others; a space-time of re-connection with oneself and the world; a weaving between challenges and possibilities, memories and dreams, personal and collective.
Any story told together shuttles between our imagination and the world of others, weaving resonances, conflict and the unexpected.