The Flower of Youth is the first art camp for teenagers in Andros. It was conceived as a space for artistic expression, collective creation, and environmental awareness. Within this context, I facilitated the workshop We and the World.
In this workshop, participants were invited to reimagine their relationship with the island beyond the dominant tourist narrative. To achieve this, local teenagers sat around a large communal table and worked together on a single sheet of paper using shared materials. This simple act—drawing, collaging, and mapping side by side—gradually transformed individual expression into collective artwork. As this process unfolded, the table became a microcosm of the world we inhabit together.
Here, negotiation, coexistence, and mutual care replaced competition. By using one shared surface and materials instead of individual sheets and tools, the usual competitive dynamic of school-based art gave way to collaborative creation.
Over our sessions, the shared map evolved into a dense visual field of memories, dreams, and observations. Layers of drawing and collage intertwined stories of daily life, local landscapes, and personal symbols. What emerged was not just a map of Andros; rather, it was a performative act of belonging—a communal portrait of the island seen through the eyes of its youth.
In turn, the process itself became a rehearsal of solidarity: teens negotiated space on the sheet, responded to one another’s traces, and reshaped their relation to island, peer-group, and place. Ultimately, the project revealed how shared tools and surfaces can transform competition into lasting communal care and connection.
