ENERGIE - Empowering New Energies and Resources in Greece Italy Area.

Funded by the Interreg Greece-Italy Programme 2021-2027, ENERGIE aims to reimagine territories and suburban areas as sustainable, creative and attractive places for the future through an inclusive and participatory approach. At the heart of this process are talented young international professionals under the age of 35, active in the fields of creativity, sustainability and innovation, who will work side by side with local communities to co-design new scenarios for regeneration.

These visions, inspired by the principles of the New European Bauhaus, will integrate environmental responsibility, aesthetic quality and social inclusion, ensuring that the proposals are not only ambitious but also rooted in the specific identities and needs of each territory. The project will take place in three municipalities committed to sustainable transition – Brindisi in Puglia, Matera in Basilicata and Aigialeia in western Greece – where participants will take part in collaborative laboratories, field research and creative workshops aimed at promoting dialogue, knowledge exchange and the construction of common visions.

The ultimate goal of ENERGIE is to deliver three co-designed regeneration projects that will serve as strategic roadmaps for future implementations. These proposals will demonstrate how collaborative design can shape sustainable, resilient and inclusive territorial transformations. By testing a replicable model of creative regeneration, ENERGIE aims to combat depopulation, strengthen local economies and generate new opportunities for cultural and social innovation in vulnerable areas, paving the way for a more inclusive and forward-looking Europe.

Duration: May 2025 to May 2027 (24 months)

Partners:

• ARTI – Regional Agency for Technology, Technology Transfer and Innovation (Lead Partner – Italy);
• Brindisi & C. ETS (Italy);
• Municipality of Brindisi (Italy);
• Matera Basilicata 2019 Foundation (Italy);
• Regional Development Fund of Region of Western Greece (Greece);
• Municipality of Aigialeia (Greece)

Total budget: €1,945,240.40 – EU co-financing (ERDF): €1,458,930.30

General objective

To strengthen the capacity of territories to attract and retain talent and to retrain local workers in order to promote the sustainable regeneration of declining industrial areas, encouraging the development of innovation and sustainability hubs that can be replicated in other European contexts.

Specific objectives:

• To redevelop degraded urban areas through innovative and participatory solutions.
• To enhance local and international skills through a co-design approach.
• To promote the transition to a green and blue economy through training and professional retraining.
• To combat youth migration and strengthen territorial cohesion.

Main activities:

• Development of a Joint Action Plan aimed at defining strategies to involve young international talent in the regeneration of three pilot areas (Brindisi, Matera, Aigialeia)
• Analysis of the skills needed for the success of regeneration projects, carried out by collecting data on current skills and emerging needs in order to identify training gaps
• International scouting of nine talented individuals under the age of 35 who are experts in architecture, design, engineering, sustainability and creativity, who will work with local communities to co-design sustainable urban regeneration projects in the areas of Brindisi, Matera and Aigialeia and support the retraining of the workforce for the green, blue and digital transitions
• Design of a cross-border hub for the professional retraining of workers from companies in crisis in the identified areas, in line with the principles of the New European Bauhaus.

For further information, please visit: https://www.greece-italy.eu/project/energie-empowering-new-energies-and-resources-in-greece-italy-area/www.greece-italy.eu

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During 2019, around 20,000 citizens of various origins and representatives of different abilities were actively involved in the cultural productions of Matera 2019, bringing Matera to Europe's attention as a place for co-creation through new cultural models that break down the barriers between artists and public.

This model is based on the idea, present since the candidacy dossier, of the "cultural inhabitant", for whom enjoying culture means direct involvement, relating to others, creative expression and practising a new way of learning and feeling like true citizens.

With Matera 2019, citizens have become actors in theatrical and cinematographic productions, dancers, emotion mappers, creators of operas, singers, artisans, tailors, gardeners, cooks, urban games players, community designers, volunteers, and they have even welcomed artists and hosted shows inside their homes.

Those citizens that took on a more active role in this journey met on 19 December, on the eve of the closing ceremony of Matera European Capital of Culture 2019, to present to the city a "poetic-artistic manifesto", written and agreed collectively. To guide them, two maestros who in 2019 created some of the most exciting productions for spectators and participants: the film and theatre director Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, architect of the staging in the natural theatre of the Sassi stone districts for the opera 'Cavalleria Rusticana', and for his special 'Prologue on the Sassi', part of the project 'Inhabiting the Opera'; and the choreographer Virgilio Sieni who, with  the dance route 'Thauma. Atlas of Gesture', part of the I-DEA project dedicated to the enrichment of the archives and public and private collections of Basilicata, collected the ritual gestures and objects of the community to transform them into choreographic installations.

The result was a public restitution in performance mode, with a procession that started in the central and crowded Piazza Vittorio Veneto and finally arrived in Piazza San Francesco, replicating some of the dances from 'Thauma. Atlas of Gesture' and popular songs from the 'Prologue on the Sassi'. A secular procession that has become a political and democratic act to continue to make and participate in culture, even after the experience of Matera 2019 has ended. Through the Manifesto, the citizens wanted to actively imagine together new practices and paths of creation to raise community awareness of participatory art.

Matera 2020 citizens' manifesto