THE PROJECT

Resilience is the capacity of the human being to face adversities in life, to emerge reinforced and even positively transformed. It is a process that involves healing wounds, a process that makes personal growth possible.

For more than 20 years we have developed within the Cenit - Centre for Theatre Research - a practice that we call "Theatre as a Bridge", which seeks to enable processes of resilience and empowerment through art in vulnerable people and communities. With its multidisciplinary and holistic approach "Theatre as a Bridge" aims at reconstructing an identity broken by traumatic experiences and recomposing one's own narrative - a space that gives voice to those fragments of life trapped in silence.

The main focus of "Theatre as a Bridge" is to restore the relationship with oneself, with the other and the surrounding space, in the here and now of conscious and creative action, focusing on the fundamental value of integrity. Creating a space where to make all of this possible in Colombia is the goal of CENIT ARTE NATURA.
Your help is essential to achieve it!

WHY COLOMBIA?

In Colombia something unprecedented took place: After almost 60 years of civil war, the government and the guerrillas finally signed a peace agreement!
What follows next depends on each one of us. It is a moment of reconstruction, not only physical, but also of the collective consciousness, it is time to heal visible and invisible wounds, it is time to defend peace as an invaluable treasure! Hence the significance of building the headquarters of "Theatre as Bridge" in Colombia, it is our contribution to this wonderful country, full of talented people and of lushious and generous nature.

THE HEADQUARTERS IN MINCA

Minca is located in the Sierra Nevada, 14 km from the city of Santa Marta- in the Colombian Caribbean, one of the regions that suffered the most from the armed conflict and was left with deep scars. For decades the war made this territory inaccessible, removing the possibility for Colombians and foreigners to know and enjoy the incredible power of its nature.
CENIT ARTE NATURA in Minca is located in a privileged space, immersed in the tropical forest, with exuberant trees. We are visited daily by countless birds such as toucans and oropendolas and we have nearby rivers of incredible pure waters and majestic waterfalls that have been sacred places for the Arhuaco and Koguis Indians since a long time.

WHAT WE DO AT CENIT ARTE NATURA?

We believe conjugating Art and Nature in the same space is the perfect situation to create, grow and develop as human beings. CENIT ARTE NATURA seeks to be a space for training, creation, exchange, permaculture and multidisciplinary art with particular attention to its social and ecological impact.

The activities that we are going to develop here are:
- "Theatre as Bridge" workshops with local vulnerable population and victims of the war
- Create pedagogical processes for trainers, artists, cultural mediators, psychologists and others interested in the techniques of Theatre as a Bridge
- Hold training and study meetings with professionals from various disciplines on the role of art in social change processes
- An open space for artistic residences, multidisciplinary art workshops, art and ecology festivals, exhibitions and much more.

CENIT ART NATURA will be able to accommodate 16 artists in residences, groups of 30 people for pedagogical meetings and 200 people as public for the activities of the Natural Amphitheater.

WHAT WE HAVE DONE SO FAR

We are currently finishing the dormitory house for students and teachers, which has been built with our own resources using Bio-architecture techniques. It will have a capacity to up to 16 people. Likewise, we recently completed the construction of the kitchen-dining floor.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE

With your help we will build:

*The maloca is a sacred space for knowledge, traditional of the indigenous people of the Colombian Amazon, which is usually built "in minga" (community/collective work) for purposes of social utility.

HOW MUCH IS NEEDED?

With the help of all we hope to reach the sum of US$ 24,000.
With this money will finish the construction works, and buy the equipment that is needed in order to start the activities of CENIT ART NATURA and be operational by March 2018. It is important to note that thanks to the designs and the use of bio-architecture techniques, the costs of the constructions will be lower than normal.

OUR HISTORY

With the Theatre as a Bridge we have worked in the prisons and in the poorest neighbourhoods of Bogotá. For ten years we have directed a psycho-social rehabilitation project for refugees victims of torture from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kurdistan, Iran, Iraq, Burundi, Nigeria, Congo, Eritrea, Libya, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire and Sudan, among others.
Together with the Ministry of Culture of Colombia, we have carried out experiences of the Theatre as Bridge with Afro-Indian populations and victims of the war.
The experience of the Theater as Bridge has obtained several recognitions:

- Catarsi-Teatri delle Diversitá Award, Rome 2017
- Ellen Stewart International Award, New York 2016
- Honor exceptional career achievements Colombian Ministry of Culture, 2015 and 2017
- 1st Prize at the International Biennial of Theatre and Psychiatry of Padua, Italy 2006.