Conference Program

This is an ongoing research project that presents a case study, the participatory art project Sottobanco, in which art-based methodologies are used to promote sexual and emotional education among adolescents. The main aim of the research is to explore the link between the artistic and educational processes, and their ability to enhance the quality of the experience and transform social conditions. This research also aims to highlight the importance of creating educational spaces based on consent and mutual care, in order to encourage the participation of individuals who struggle to find a space for expression and action within the school system. From a methodological point of view, the ongoing research is conceived as a case study that uses as tools an auto-ethnographic diary, interviews, collages and photographic documents of the process. Sottobanco is conceived by artist Tea Andreoletti and produced by the Orlando Festival of Visual and Performing Arts in Bergamo, and involves the creation of a performative installation that imagines a self-managed sex and emotional education class set up in the public space of Piazza della Libertà in Bergamo during the Orlando Festival that will be held in May 2026. Sottobanco is co-created with two groups of students aged between 16 and 18 who come from areas that are usually marginalized in terms of cultural activities, namely the upper Seriana Valley and in the eastern plain of the province of Bergamo. It arose from the need to find creative and collective responses to the growing restrictions imposed on sex and emotional education in schools and to bring the knowledge of adolescents into the public arena, opening up the walls of the classroom. Sottobanco involves the creation of a temporary community based on consent and collective responsibility, made up of adolescents and the adults involved (the artist herself, an intern from the Academy of Fine Arts, an educator and a researcher), who share rules, urgent issues on sexuality and practices to navigate the world of affections. The project embraces a broad vision of sexuality (cognitive, emotional, physical and social) and an intersectional view of gender and aims to promote the self-determination of each person in pursuing their own sexual well-being. Gender and sexual orientation can become factors in social exclusion due to systematic discrimination, stereotypes and cultural norms that limit opportunities for women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, especially for young people. The use of participatory art has both ethical and aesthetic aims and seeks to create a collectively negotiated space of social engagement that can reduce discrimination and epistemic injustice.