"EUROPE - identities under (trans)formation: GENDER*X" is the title of an international Youth-exchange from partners of the Erasmus+ program. It will take place from the 21st of August till the 10th of September 2016 in the city of Salzburg, where we have already a network of organizations which are connected to our issues. We will invite forty participants from Austria, Bulgaria, Poland and Spain (10 per country) between 16 to 30 years. The participants should be prepared to share their personal approach and to engage themselves with the ideas of feminisms, gender and queer studies, bringing together their top skills not to reach a uniform result but to expand them with new insights. As we are living and working together in and as a community we expect the participants to be self-responsible, cooperative and respectful with each other. We would like to include heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, inter- and transsexual people.This project will continue on the last years project “Europe – identity under (de)construction” but with the focus on gender- and queer-theories; by following methods of non-formal education and art-pedagogy we want to approach the idea of “European identity” as well as take a critical look at given (gender-) categories and norms of the society system(s). Reflecting about our identities and trying out different subjectivities in the context of Europe will help us to find common ways of rethinking and redefining our values, standards, policies and hierarchical structures, finding new sustainable ways towards solidarity, reconciliation and cooperation between human beings. The main topics of this Youth-Exchange will be:- Gender equality / equal opportunities- Creativity and culture- Social dialogueThe project consists of three parts (all following the ideas of non-formal and artistically education): preparation: communication with the partners, APV, scheduling the participants. carrying out: while the twenty one days of the youth-exchange our activities are focused on interdisciplinary approaches. We will practice together while exchanging our knowledge about the use of artistic methods in the fields of education and youth work. evaluation: team leader- and group-meetings, project diary, Youthpass, final report. In the daily program we will foresee and implement various methods and forms of reflection that will ensure a more guided reflection process. While the three weeks of the exchange we want to create awareness for gender-identity. Therefor we will offer drag-workshops to get in touch with the ‘other gender’; through different workshops focusing on topics such as dancing and movement theatre, photography, puppet theatre and object theatre, street theatre, circus pedagogy, forum theatre, art therapy, social and sexual education, non-formal education and non-verbal communication we want to encourage the skills of each participant. In the end of the second activity there will be an exhibition in “Künstlerhaus” which will show all the results of the project (fine and plastic arts, performance, all forms of theater, video, documentary, etc.). Our common objectives are to improve our expertise and to develop our personal strengths, to further develop our repertoire of methods, to intensify our relations and make them even more widespread, dense and visible. Open Salzburg as an attractive city for many young people from all over Europe with regard to a guided process of migration. We do believe that art is a key to self-awareness, and that self-awareness and self-confidence are necessary for an equal and democratic communication and for social dialogue. We do believe that artistic skills and creative thinking can be a key skill in dealing with our own personal problems, in reaching personal freedom, as well as in providing inclusive and sustainable solutions for the whole society. Following this ideas we work with the concept of aesthetical education in a combination of art and political activism. We want to promote emancipation, because it is not done yet. On the one hand we want to make people aware of the changes that have been already going on. On the other hand we want to defend and strengthen our position, emphasizing the need for diversity and equality among all sexes, genders, races, classes, sexualities etc. We want to show the people in understanding that restrictions are something rather artificial than natural, that the discourse of what "we" consider normal is often an act of standardization: normative, restrictive and violent; one group exercising power to the other. Identity-conceptions have always changed throughout history, reaching a peak in the digital century of globalization, but pointing out the positive aspect of change within the people's minds.