On Thursday 12 November, the exhibition “PolsXtrems. Your gym for training critical thinking”, produced by ICIP, opened at the Espai Jove Kesse in Tarragona. The exhibition comes to the city after its stay at the Palau Robert in Barcelona, beginning a new stage of its tour around Catalonia.
For one month, the Espai Jove Kesse becomes a gym with different stations and challenges designed to train mental flexibility. Through an immersive route, the exhibition invites visitors to reflect on how we consume information, how social media influences the way we form our opinions, and how unconscious biases shape the way we interpret reality.
The route also presents situations of polarisation to show how the same reality can be interpreted from different perspectives. The experience culminates in a changing room where visitors can listen to a range of viewpoints on current issues such as immigration and tourism. The aim is to learn to live with disagreement, listen to different arguments and uphold respect for human rights.
The opening ceremony was attended by the Mayor of Tarragona, Rubén Viñuales; the Catalan Government’s Minister for Equality and Feminism, Eva Menor; and the director of ICIP, Kristian Herbolzheimer. During the visit, Viñuales stressed the importance of having spaces that help us reflect, listen to one another and better understand an increasingly complex reality. Herbolzheimer highlighted an exhibition that seeks to promote dialogue, even when it is uncomfortable, because “we have to learn to manage disagreement”. For her part, Eva Menor emphasised that critical thinking means asking questions and questioning who spreads messages and how they do so.
The exhibition is aimed especially at young people and is part of the Tarragona Jove programme. The Espai Jove Kesse expects to welcome around 1,800 secondary school students from the city, as well as other youth groups and organisations.
A day of debate on disinformation, polarisation and hate speech
Coinciding with PolsXtrems’ stay in Tarragona, ICIP and Tarragona City Council are organising the event “Who trains your mind?” on 3 December, a space for reflection and debate on some of the main issues addressed by the exhibition: the spread of disinformation, rising polarisation and hate speech.
The event aims to bring into public debate some of the questions raised by the exhibition: who builds the narratives we consume? How does disinformation spread? What responsibility do the media, digital platforms and citizens have?
In the morning, from 9.30 am, the Espai Jove Kesse will host two round tables, with prior registration required. The first, “Risks of disinformation”, will analyse the role of the media, social media and artificial intelligence in the spread of false or misleading content. Speakers will include Carlos Baraibar, head of the 3CatInfo Verifica unit; Carlota Moragas, lecturer at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili and member of Learn to Check; and Ona Sindreu, editorial coordinator at Verificat. The session will be moderated by journalist Esteve Giralt.
The second round table, “Algorithms, power and polarisation”, will address the impact of social media, how algorithms work and the limits of regulating digital platforms. Speakers will include Carlos Bajo, from the Observatory for Ethics in Artificial Intelligence of Catalonia; Laia Coronado, from Mèdia.cat; Rita Costa, from Build Up; and Emma Fraxanet, PhD in Information and Communication Technologies from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Journalist Elisenda Rovira will moderate the session.
In the afternoon, at 5 pm and with no registration required, the event will continue at Tinglado 1 on the Moll de Costa with the round table “Impact and narratives of hate speech: how can we counter it?”. The session will bring together Cheikh Drame, president of SOS Racisme; Tatiana Dunyó, from the Pantube Collective; and Ángeles Schjaer, educational coordinator at Open Arms. It will be moderated by Arnau Martínez, member of the Board of the Tarragona branch of the Association of Journalists of Catalonia.
Afterwards, attendees will be able to visit the exhibition “Open Arms. A mission against the tide”, on display at Tinglado 1.
Practical information
The exhibition can be visited at the Espai Jove Kesse in Tarragona from 12 November to 12 December, Tuesday to Saturday afternoons, from 4.30 pm to 8 pm. Admission is free. On weekday mornings, from Monday to Friday, it is open to schools with prior booking at tarragonajove.org/polsxtrems. The exhibition is recommended for visitors aged 12 and over.
The exhibition is produced by ICIP and co-organised with Tarragona City Council’s Youth and Cooperation departments, with the support of the Catalan Government’s Department of Equality and Feminism and the collaboration of Europe Direct Tarragona.
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