Learning Through Creative Transformation: Job Shadowing with MAGNET in Serbia

As part of APERO – Alliance for Participation, Empowerment, and Resilient Organizations, CitizensLab member and collaborator Giulia spent five days job shadowing MAGNET in Serbia. More than a professional exchange, the experience became an opportunity to slow down, observe, share practices and learn through being together.

During these days, Giulia spent time with Jelena and Darko, exchanging perspectives on their work in Serbia and CitizensLab’s work in Berlin. Conversations moved between projects, methods, community spaces and the different ways in which both organisations create conditions for learning, connection and transformation. They revealed many shared interests while also opening new questions and possibilities for future collaboration.

One of the highlights was spending time in Darko’s studio and participating in his workshop 7 Stages of Creative Transformation. Through creative and embodied practices, the group explored processes at the intersection of art, psychology and somatics. Particularly interesting was how these different fields came together through direct experience rather than remaining separate areas of knowledge.

These are also important areas of exploration within CitizensLab, making the exchange particularly relevant. Giulia returned to Berlin with new practices, questions and inspiration, but also with a deeper reflection: learning does not happen only through exchanging knowledge, but through creating spaces where people can experience, reflect and transform together.

The job shadowing also showed the value of spending informal time together. Conversations, shared meals, visits and simply having time to observe another organisation from within created a different quality of exchange from a conventional training or meeting. This is one of the strengths of job shadowing: being able to encounter not only an organisation’s methods, but also its culture, relationships and everyday ways of working.