The Voci adolescenti | Call for QuaranTeens call wants to collect – through the website www.murateartdistrict.it and the dedicated number +39 3202505022- a series of ten-seconds audio sent from teenagers who are currently experiencing the discomfort and drama of the pandemic.
The call is spread in Italian and in English and invites you to send words, sounds of the enviroment and/or emotional sounds.

The participatory art action proposed by the project Voci adolescenti | Call for QuaranTeens aims to collect the voices of teenagers from all over the world – the sounds collection will be turned into a sound installation in collaboration with Tempo Reale – so that they can leave a sort of emotional mark, together in a cry crossing the limits of space, communicating through sound how they perceive themselves, how they feel, who they are.

“The project was born with the experience of my teenager daughter struggling with distance learning since last March. My daughter, as all students like her, spend all her day in front of a monitor to attend classes and to do homework, talks to her friends on chat or on an online platform, and if she has spare time, watches a series. During the first lockdown the effort has been much, but there was hope that everything would be quickly resolved. Now, a little less than a year later teenagers start to show significant signs of discomfort. This impression of distress was confirmed meeting middle school students who are anxious about their parents’ and grandparents’ health, concerned of the economic situation of their family, scared of the future. For the first time in history what our children are experiencing affects millions of children. In the world there are 1,2 billion teenagers, about 18% of the world population. They are the future, those encharged of the planning and of a possible change for the survival of our planet. Solitude, isolation, lack of physical contact are a great deprivation for every human being, but are particularly hard for young people. Peer interaction has enormous importance in the formation of personality and learning. The feeling of distrust toward the future, the fear of the next catastrophe, the sense of powerlessness and guilt are likely to have disastrous consequences on an entire generation. Kids need to be heard.”

“I’m writing to you about a new art project of mine in association with MAD Murate Art District. It’s a sound installation, composed of voices of teenagers like you from all around the world. You are experiencing a difficult time, both as an individual and as a dweller of this planet. But for the first time in history, what you are experiencing (isolation, worries about adults’ health, your family’s economic situation, the impossibility of physically going to school) concerns millions of kids all around the world. Did you know that teenagers are about 1.2 billions, 18% of the world population?”

Benedetta Manfriani