Emotional education arrives at schools

Barcelona, June 9, 2010

Today, Art i absència was presented in Barcelona, a new pioneering training program in Catalonia aimed at educational centers, teachers, and families that seeks to address emotional conflicts through art and culture.

Organized by AVES, a non-profit association with over 15 years of experience in grief groups and mutual aid, and coordinated by professionals in pedagogy, fine arts, and emotional therapy, Art i absència offers an innovative and unique experience in the country. It provides teachers and students with the necessary tools to manage and understand loss—whether it be death, separation, or migration—as a key element within the cycles of life. The program is supported by Serveis Funeraris Integrals (SFI), a company committed to the community where it provides its services, aiming to raise awareness about dealing with moments of loss and mourning as a reality we experience daily, from the first to the last moment.

Art i absència advocates for a comprehensive and personalized education on loss and the natural process of facing life changes. “We need to talk about loss before the child becomes emotionally linked to a situation of mourning. If not explained properly, many children may think that what is happening is their fault,” says Adela Torres, president of AVES and one of the coordinators of the activity.

The new educational proposal will be developed in a playful and artistic space created for the program at AVES’s headquarters in Barcelona (C/ Còrsega 271). It features an art exhibition hall where visitors can explore various contemporary works inspired by the themes of loss and the passage of time, created specifically for the project. This art hall is the starting point for a subsequent experiential workshop where different emotions, doubts, and sensations generated during the visit will be addressed through art.

The Art i absència space is open to the educational community from Monday to Friday. Workshops for families in general will also be offered on weekends. The duration of the activity is an hour and a half for preschool groups and two hours for primary, secondary, and higher education groups.

Educating for Life through Art and Culture

Currently, loss, death, and mourning are experienced with distance. The Art i absència program provides a space to approach emotions through art and culture with the goal of helping teachers and students learn to recognize and experience them normally. “Today, moments of crisis, loss, illness, or difficulty are experienced with strong personal closure, which is hard to address from an emotional standpoint. Not knowing how to express these emotions can lead to serious difficulties,” says Concepció Poch, a psychopedagogue and philosopher, expert in death and mourning pedagogy, and collaborator with AVES.

Ultimately, the aim of the Art i absència project is to help teachers and families educate for life. In this regard, the program includes a series of pedagogical tools for the community that will help students work on concepts such as the finiteness of life, experiencing losses, and mourning. “Even for explaining the cycles of life to young children, a special book titled *De muda en muda*, which tells the story of a silkworm becoming a butterfly, has been published,” explains Adela Torres.

Art i absència proposes overcoming emotional taboos in a spontaneous and natural way. According to Oriol Garriga, contemporary art facilitator and workshop coordinator, “art allows us to address these taboos in a very playful manner. Through plastic expression, many losses are discovered, not just those of loved ones.” Among the artworks featured in the exhibition space are a piece by Ivan Tambor Veldman paying tribute to *L’hora* by Joan Brossa and the recycled piece by the musical group Cavo San Roque.

To learn more about Art i absència, the program’s website will be available from June 30 at: www.avesgams.org/artiabsencia