Il Garden de las Llengües: An Arts-Based Workshop to Celebrate International Mother Language Day at Escola El Viver

On 23 February, the primary school community of Institut Escola El Viver took part in an arts-based workshop celebrating International Mother Language Day, organised within the PLURART pilot.

The activity began with a reading of the book Què dius? by Mia Güell and Fabrizzio Botasso. The story tells the story of the inhabitants of a poppy field where insects from different species live happily together, even though they speak different languages. One day, however, the queen ant wonders what life would be like if everyone spoke the same language. Since ants are the majority and are used to getting their way, the ant language becomes imposed on the others. As a result, the life of the insects changes, revealing the consequences of losing one’s own language.

Following a collective reflection on the story and on the importance of preserving one’s language as a fundamental part of identity, students participated in an arts workshop led by the book’s illustrator, Fabrizzio Botasso. Through different artistic techniques and forms of expression, the children collaboratively created the school’s Garden of Languages. Within this imagined garden, each student created an insect that forms part of this ecosystem and expresses itself in a unique way using one or more of their linguistic repertoires, highlighting the rich linguistic diversity present in the school community.

The workshop offered a meaningful opportunity to foster cultural and plurilingual awareness through the arts, one of the core aims of the PLURART pilot, which seeks to integrate arts-based and plurilingual approaches to support students’ expression, participation and agency.