The first residency of The Floor is Yours project had three students from the LABA Academy as its protagonists, who were guests of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam from 20 to 24 November.

This was a week full of stimuli and new discoveries for Aurora Martinelli, Federico Peruzzo and Luca Rapetti, who in just a few days devised the visual communication for a public event by the Boijmans for member of the local hearing loss community.The students worked alongside their graphics teacher Giovanni Pezzato and also the cultural mediators and sign language interpreters of Art & Culture with Sign Language.

The main challenge of the residency consisted in understanding how people with hearing loss related to visual art and images, starting with an understanding of the everyday reality of those living with a sensory impairment.Kirsten de Ven, cultural mediator at Boijmans, accompanied the three youngsters along this path, together with her daughter Marie-Laura, who has been deaf from birth, and who conducted a Visual Thinking workshop inside the Depot of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

During the second day of the residency, the students were introduced to the Cult North association, which is committed to showcasing and promoting local underground artistic production. Mitchel, a volunteer at the association, accompanied the youngsters around the most northerly neighbourhood of Rotterdam to discover the fascinating and contradictory panorama that is characteristic of the city: from a setting for this experience, Rotterdam became a stage for self-expression.

The residency concluded with a public seminar, with the participation of Cult North and Art & Culture with Sign Language, local partners of the Boijmans Museum, the Mart and the mumok, international partners in The Floor is Yours project.

On this occasion the youngsters from the LABA presented their graphic proposals developed during the residency, organized into the two products requested: a flyer and a logo capable of representing the local hearing loss community. The key elements of the proposal, characterized by simplicity and expressive synthesis, are the colours yellow and blue, typical of the flag of the hearing loss community, and hands, a reference to sign language. Both products were realized following the principles of accessibility and inclusivity, always relating to the precise local context of the Boijmans.

The logo designed by the students is composed of two crossed hands revealing the outline of the iconic architecture of the Depot, the symbol of the Rotterdam museum, in a two-colour interplay of solids and voids. The shape recalls a coffee cup and therefore the social and fun dimension of the events and initiatives that the museum proposes for the local hearing loss community.

Finally, each of the three museums involved in the European The Floor Is Yours project had a space to tell about the activities carried out so far in the shared programme. The next residency, scheduled for February 2024 in Rovereto, will offer a further opportunity for debate and the exchange of ideas.