Costa Blanca North
Living Chess: Mental health in young people
By Donna Williams •
Published: 06 Aug 2024 • 19:48
• 1 minute read
The Living Chess of Javea, an annual tradition organised by the Festival Committee of Loreto and recognised as a Festival of National Tourist Interest, recently celebrated its 26th anniversary.
This year’s event focused on the important issue of mental health in young people through an adaptation of the Wizard of Oz entitled ‘Nido de PajarOZ’.
Through creative storytelling, the Living Chess sought to highlight how social networks and the digital world, in general, are having a detrimental effect on the mental well-being of today’s youth. Drawing parallels with the distorted images seen through the 3D glasses in the Emerald City mirrors, it cleverly highlighted how social networks represent only a limited and biased view of reality.
Living Chess used Oz characters to highlight mental health in young people
Aside from the visual representation, the story depicted how the Wizard of Oz was, in fact, nothing more than a normal person who had taken advantage of gossip to gain enormous power. Furthermore, the Scarecrow did not lack brains, the Tin Man did not lack a heart, and, yes, you’ve guessed it, the Cowardly Lion was not lacking in courage.
These were all manifestations brought about by the influence of social media and the pressure to achieve perfection and to portray a continuous state of happiness.
The work was applauded for its artistic quality and, perhaps more importantly, its social relevance and its ability to raise awareness of such a complex and all-too-real mental health issue.
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Marketer, copywriter, storyteller and President of Samaritans in Spain. They say variety is the spice of life and I am definitely loving life!
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