OUR STORY

The workshop is based on the research of a Tandem Europe program entitled Co-Warming (2019-20) in partnership with Elena Guinta and Larius (IT), as well as on our own company experience working not only with professional performers and cultural managers, but also with youth and adults in different local and international collaborations.

In the framework of the international Tandem Europe project, an unconventional partnership has been created between the Italian social enterprise, Larius and the Hungarian interdisciplinary art collective, Ziggurat Project. The aim of our project was to improve the mental well-being of work communities and to raise awareness of burnout syndrome’s more and more common phenomenon by the help of art-based methods. Elena Guinta, Italian art therapist and designer, and Flóra Eszter Sarlós, Hungarian choreographer and yoga teacher stood in the heart of this collaboration. During the project, we worked on the development of artistic tools that can be easily integrated into the everyday lives of a community, as well as on promoting the importance of mental balance and the prevention of burnout.

Within our cooperation we achieved the following:

sharing thoughts and professional exchange with experts of the fields of art therapy, mindfulness, yoga, dance, theatre and design
sharing thoughts, professional exchange and mentoring within Tandem Europe program with the help of international project managers, social workers and artists
testing workshops with different target groups (employees of Larius social enterprise, artists and cultural managers)
design and creation of an informational card package with summary and visualisation of the exercises in English.

From the beginning of 2020, the development of the project in Hungary continued under the name EMPOWERmental. With the help of drama teacher and facilitator Fanny Hajdú, we adapted the workshop for the 16-18 year old age group, focusing on tools supporting mental and physical balance in the midst of pandemic anxiety and the challenges of remote education. Since the beginning of this new episode of EMPOWERmental, we had the opportunity to hold workshops in the frame of several international collaborations or events, such as Istanbul Fringe Festival or the Anti Bullying Movement Series project supported by Erasmus+. EMPOWERmental has been selected among the winning projects of Good Impact Sustanaibility Fair 2021.

Our goal is to bring these tools to as many non-profit and for-profit teams as possible in the future and to further develop it through various collaborations in order to fit the needs and expectations of both employers and employees.

The professionals and helpers involved in the project, to whom we are grateful:

Elena Giunta, co-founder of the Co-Warming project, art therapist, designer

Cristina Conca, director of LARIUS Società Cooperativa Sociale

Brigitta Kovács, Co-Warming project manager

Alexandra Rab, dancer and psychologist

Fanni Lakos, actor and trainer

Axel Rutten, art therapist, artist and kundalini yoga teacher

Hadi Habibnejad, choreographer and dance teacher

Alessandra Pedraglio & Lorenzo Stefano Bordiga, laughing yoga teachers

Nicoletta Ferri, dancer and dance teacher

Rossella Elisio, mindfulness coach

Artists of Ziggurat Project

Credits for photos and videos on the website:

Viktória Salgó, graphics

Máté Fuchs, portrait photos

Patrícia Bodnár, photos from the Good Impact Sustainability Fair 2021

Gergő Lukács, video editing

Sponsors of Co-warming project:

Tandem for Culture, LARIUS Società Cooperativa Sociale

Sponsors of EMPOWERmental project:

Artopolis, EMMI, NKA / Imre Zoltán Program, Civil Impact