Lorenzo Vitturi
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Skateistan: Empowering Youth Through Skateboarding and Education
Despite recent economic achievements, Cambodia remains one of the poorest countries in Asia, and over half of the population is under 25 years old. The non-profit organisation Skateistan operating in Phnom Penh is committed to building children’s confidence and sense of community through sport and arts-based activities. Programmes for children aged 5 to 17 seek to expand sports and educational opportunities, especially for girls, children living with a disability, and children from low-income backgrounds from the surrounding neighbourhoods.
While learning the technical skills involved in skateboarding, children learn important life skills, such as teamwork, making friends and taking turns. They build up their own confidence, but they also help to build the confidence of others by encouraging them to take on new challenges in the skate park.
One of Skateistan’s programmes is Skate and Create, which offers weekly skateboarding instruction alongside an educational arts-based curriculum. In the classroom, Skateistan educators use creative arts to teach a variety of topics, including human rights, cultural studies, nutrition and the environment. Lessons focus on giving young people the tools to express themselves, think critically and develop confidence. In the skatepark, students find a valuable platform for self-expression and personal development. Accessible to all levels of literacy and education, Skate and Create provides a safe space for young people to develop friendships that overcome deep social barriers.
Biography
Lorenzo Vitturi (b. 1980, Italy) is a photographer and sculptor based in London. Formerly a cinema set painter, Vitturi has brought this experience into his photographic practice, which revolves around site-specific interventions at the intersection of photography, sculpture and performance. In Vitturi’s process, photography in conceived as a space of transformation, where different disciplines merge together to represent the complexities of changing urban environments.
Vitturi’s latest solo exhibitions have taken place at Flowers Gallery in London, FOAM Museum in Amsterdam, The Photographers’ Gallery in London, Contact Photography Festival in Toronto, and at the CNA in Luxembourg. Vitturi also participated to group exhibitions at MaXXI in Rome, at Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, at La Triennale in Milan, at the Shanghai Art Museum and at K11 Art Space in Shanghai, and at BOZAR in Brussels. Following the presentation of ‘Dalston Anatomy’ in as a book, multi-layered installations and performance (SPBH Editions, 2013), Vitturi’s latest photo-book ‘Money Must Be Made’ was published by SPBH Editions in September 2017.