Good evening, Francesca, it's nice to meet you here in the Kreuzberg (district of Berlin), in the club 'Wendelbar' to celebrate your promotion from EVS volunteer to general administrator of 'Citizens of Europe'. What brought you originally to Berlin and the European voluntary service?

Originally, I was looking for an experience abroad after my academic studies and my target country was Germany in general, not Berlin in particular. Once I had discovered the 'Youth in Action Programme' of the European Commission I sent lots of applications to the biggest cities in Germany, Berlin included. Citizens of Europe was one of the organisations that replied. I started a long correspondence mostly with Frank Burgdörfer, chairman of the association. Later we met in person in Brussels during an OpenForum, so I had a chance to get to know him and Gert Röhrborn, the executive officer, as well as a few other people from the network. My first impressions were good and together we decided to focus on "the arts of engagement", reflecting a shared interest in the arts and active citizenship. So after my graduation, I landed in Berlin and was positively surprised by the city itself.

So how come you were initially interested in Germany? I know the language can be quite difficult for Italians...

True. My first contact with Germany was three years ago when living with a German girl for six months whilst she was on Erasmus in Rome. A year later I visited her in Wiesbaden in the south of Germany, which was the first time I had set a foot on German soil. You know, I was surprised by the beauty of the area around the River Rhine and I wanted to come back. So together with two of my friends I decided to study German at university and I liked it. I thought it was a very beautiful language. I have always been fascinated by authors like Nietzsche or Goethe and, believe it or not, my favourite composer is Beethoven. So you can say I already had a kind of connection with German cultural space. Some time later I discovered this opportunity to go abroad thanks to the Youth in Action programme of the European Union and I started to check it out. I wanted to be in a country different from mine. Spain would have been too easy for me. I wanted to experience something totally different and because I already knew the basics of the language, I decided that Germany was the best choice.

Photo: Citizens of Europe

Francesca on top of the German Parliament in Berlin.

Philipp: I'm curious to know about your experiences with the European Voluntary Service. Are you satisfied with what you did in your term and how the whole thing was managed?

On balance I'm satisfied, yes. I had the chance to do several things outside my EVS as well, because I established quite a few other contacts here in Berlin, although at the beginning it wasn't that easy. I confess I was a bit homesick and it was something really new for me. I had also another experience of living abroad before when I lived for six months in England. There I had been totally fine, I never missed home. With Berlin it was different, I instantly felt that something was missing; it was a rather difficult start, and as you might guess it was also not all that easy to understand exactly the work in the office. Then it turned out some projects I was supposed to help with did not get accepted, which meant we had to adapt my duties in the office. Anyway, step by step things evolved and in the second part of the EVS, let's say after Easter, it went really smoothly. I think it depends also on the difficulties with the language itself, because at the beginning I was speaking mostly in English and then I switched to German. It's not easy sometimes to have the feeling that you're not really able to do things just because you don't understand. Your brain is working like hell but there are no results and it's really frustrating; it also has a lot to do with your personal mood. Anyway, now it's fine. I have to say I was really flattered about the proposal to stay longer and take over the office management.

Alright, we'll come back to that a little bit later. First I'd like to know more about your own project called "shapingCITYzenship", which looks at the city in transformation. It's currently Berlin-based, but who knows, maybe it'll be open to other cities in the future as well. Is it a coincidence that you set up this project during your EVS, while living in a city totally new to you?

Photo: Citizens of Europe

Francesca, playing with an artistic-looking card.

Initially there were two reasons: I was very impressed by the city itself and I realised the huge differences between Berlin and Rome. Rome was the place where I had lived for the past six years, so I got used to the environment. After being in Berlin for just a week I was already struck by its energy. Every corner was different, it was so amazing! Everything is new, you don't have historic places. I mean, obviously, relatively new, you don’t have things like the coliseum. In comparison to Rome, Berlin is a baby city. It needs to be developed totally. I started reading a lot about the history of the city and also explored all its different districts. Whenever I had time I jumped into the S-Bahn and went through the city, took pictures and did all the other things a tourist does. At some point I got hold of a book, "The Ghosts of Berlin", written by a American writer Brian Ladd, exploring the relationship between architecture and history. This was a mind-changing experience, because from then on I was able to read the history of the city through architectural styles. I was very fascinated by this, so I decided to explore this field further. I had written my final thesis in urban geography, so I could already refer somehow to existing knowledge and interpretation of urban changes and urban development in general. After a while another idea came to me: what about citizens? What is their role in the ever-changing, creative process of the city? How do daily events and individual actions create a European space? I mean how do they influence the development of the city itself? So I decided to look out for other people who wanted to help me with this research. Thanks to you, Philipp, I met Elisabetta, an Italian photographer who’s still cooperating with me. We basically share the responsibilities in the project. I'm focusing on the social aspects of the research, finding interesting people and doing interviews, while Elizabetha is more into the aesthetic part. So far we have produced an archive of interviews and pictures, which is currently hosted on artinterventions.eu, one of the major programmes at Citizens of Europe. The idea is to have also a physical exhibition and, why not, also to extend the concept to other European cities. For this we need to find more people, of course; individuals who'd like to explore the sometimes striking, sometimes enigmatic differences between the cities they live in, to identify and visualise the internal forces at work inside the city and affecting everyone of us. So we wholeheartedly welcome new collaborators!

I am impressed. You are rather a newcomer at Citizens of Europe and the board already appointed you general administrator. You will be responsible for managing the office and also partly in charge of projects. That's quite a promotion, Francesca, congratulations! So please share with us your thoughts about it and let us know what you plan to do in the position.

First, learn the job, really! (smiling) I had a very good – so to speak - master: Gert, who also supervises shapingCITYzenship. I found his way to lead the office really good and I learned a lot thanks to him. The offer was a surprise to me and also a great challenge. Generally I am not a born frontman (or "frontwoman"), I prefer to rock back stage. Still I decided to go for it, because I feel it's a way to grow up both in a personal and a professional way. So in the end I will come to understand what happens in the office beyond the volunteer's desk: the boring but necessary stuff that needs to be taken care of well. Finally I realised it's important to me too. Together with Gert, I am currently developing my project further towards cooperation with local and international partners. Last but not least I can stay one more year in Berlin and, who knows, maybe I'll enjoy it even more this time.

Teaser photo: Citizens of Europe