Bearing in mind the importance of cultural heritage and the respect for the seniors, the project eEnrich which gathers three organisations from Liechtenstein, Island and France, has started in October with a meeting in Liechtenstein. It aims to reinforce the links between the younger and elderly generations with a focus on cultural heritage.
From May 9th to 12th 2014, the French partner of the project, “Tambour Battant”, hosted the second meeting of the project: Intergenerational workshop on cultural heritage, which mainly consisted of a workshop of Inter-cultural music that was designed as a means of communication and interaction. The workshop brought together elderly people and youth with a passion for music. Even though the participants spoke different languages, they managed to make music and replaced words with notes by playing the gamelan[1]. The organizers have particularly chosen this instrument ensemble due to the fact that it requires multiple players and a real teamwork in order to play a song. Sylvie Chantriaux, a dedicated musician who led this workshop, introduced the participants to the specificity of the gamelan and to the Asian cultural background of the music produced by this complex set of instruments.
“You cannot go wrong in playing the gamelan with the others, because there’s a special harmony!” said one of the participants. In fact, the music that the participants played together aimed to bring to foreground the harmony that should exist in inter-human relations. Since the seniors and the youth had no knowledge of playing the gamelan before,all participants started from scratch and fostered intergenerational interaction.
The eEnrich project will continue with another workshop in Iceland that will be based on storytelling and Living Library. Again, this workshop will bring seniors and youngsters together where both generationswill tell stories of their lives, share their aspects of their experiences, followed by a session of inter-generational discussions.