periferias dibujadas
periferias dibujadas is an "improbable observatory" of urban transformation and conflict, centred on the voices, perspectives and interventions of children. Building on a well-established and widely applied pedagogical approach, it addresses global dynamics through local interventions. Children acquire the tools to become researchers of their own urban environments through multimodal ethnography and artistic practice.
Working alongside children, artists, educators and researchers, the initiative has developed projects at the intersection of urban research and community art in neighbourhoods including Albayzín (Granada), Anjos (Lisbon) and Barra (Naples), among others.
The collection and reinterpretation of local knowledge and cultural practices place children at the centre of the process as both researchers and creators. Through walks, interviews with residents and shopkeepers, emotional mapping, and multimodal methods—including drawing, collage, comics, audio, video, stop-motion and collective mapping—participants explore, document and express their relationship with the places they inhabit.
Cinalfama's collaboration with periferias dibujadas unfolds in two complementary ways.
From this year onwards, the festival will introduce a dedicated programme highlighting children's perspectives on the urban environment and beyond. Curated by Periferias Dibujadas, the section will present films made by children or created in collaboration with them. Open to audiences of all ages, these screenings seek to foreground the importance of children's knowledge, perspectives and lived experience of the cities they inhabit.
The second strand is a longer-term collaboration involving the APPA – Associação do Património e da População de Alfama, with the aim of developing a collaborative research process with children in the Alfama neighbourhood itself.