Day#2

The second day of the conference was dedicated to the creative exploration of themes related to Heimat and community: 

#1 SHAPING URBAN SPACE
#2 CLIMATE FUTURE AND SUSTAINABILITY
#3 DIGITAL COMMUNITIES
#4 EDUCATION ON THE MOVE
#5 BORDERS – ME AND THE STRANGENESS

In 5 open thematic labs participants were asked to share their knowledge, questions, ideas and perspectives on the respective topic. Each lab was led by an artist who guided and accompanied those exchanges and dialogues in an open artistic process. Sometimes experts joined the group in order to enrich the discussion from different points of views.

I. SHAPING URBAN SPACE

Artistic direction: Ulrike Gärner, Annette Nickel and Jan Minack from the Gap Group (“Lückenglück“). Created in 2013, this artist collective teamed up to research and gather gardens in the city that are slowly vanishing or that are lost already.

During this lab, artists and participants came together in order to talk about urban space, the city, green space and what it means to have a public space for everyone. Together they created small paper squares to symbolise such a square. Meanwhile participants were inspired by the „Lost Gardens“ and fragments of mural paintings in a historical exhibition room of the Japanese Palais exhibition. On a walk to the riverside of the river Elbe participants collected stones from the river to create the „Pebble Square“.

II. CLIMATE FUTURE AND SUSTAINABILITY

Artistic direction group one: Elena Cencetti, dancer, cheographer and teacher.

In this workshop participants explored together an approach through dance and movement to the big topic of climate change. Focusing on the body, on its way of moving and of feeling, participants opened up to different sceneries of the future, in a mix of imagination and (sur)realism.

Thanks to the participation of the experts from Scientists for Future and the group Extinction Rebellion Dresden (XR) different subtopics were addressed and discussed extensively in terms of facts, opinions and feelings.

Artistic direction group two: Eva und Marthe Howitz, fashion designers.    

The focus of the workshop was on clothing. Clothes touch all people. It is considered a second skin. Still, the textile and fashion industry is one of the main causes for pollution on our planet. Guided by the artists, participants focused on the qustion of „How do we want to live with / in our clothes in the future?“.  As an introduction to the topic participants watched a documentary movie on fast fashion. This paved the way for the upcoming deep discussion and exchanges. Through input from the expert from XR, the group came up with ideas of public protest. Equally important were the materials that were provided. The big white banner from Artists for Future and a sack full of skin-colored clothing gave further suggestions and provided a good basis for sharing ideas.

III. DIGITAL COMMUNITIES

Artistic direction: Jan Baumann, musician and producer.  

We live in times of pervasive digital presence. How will our communities and our behaviour be shaped by it and how is it already shaped?

Through the artistic guidance particiapnts took part in an auditive experiment including music production. They worked with futuristic sounds, beat loops and audio effects to create an experimental music and sound production and explore in this way the concept of digital community.

 

IV. EDUCATION ON THE MOVE

Artistic direction: Yaëlle Dorison, artist, teacher, clown. 

In this lab participants explored the theme of education and learning through movement and graphic signs. Dance and drawing provide an opportunity to find lightness in learning.

Particular focus was put on humor, to learn to  accept mistakes and to enjoy problems, because they give us the potential for future experiences.

V. BORDERS – ME AND THE STRANGENESS

Artistic direction group one: Helena Fernandino, dancer, cheographer, teacher.

In this workshop participants took time to investigate borders from a unique perspective: the body.

Playing with variations of time and space, with the own movement, taken from the everyday life and with props participants explore the borders: borders we establish in the encounter with ourselves, with each other, with the physical and social environment.

Artistic direction group two: Nazanin Zandi, architect and graphic artist

In this workshop, participants talked about walls, obstacles, mental limits, boundaries and borderline personalities.

Using big cardboard panels, acrylic colours, glued objects and the creativity of everyone, participants have built and painted in groups of two panels that illustrate borders for our body and mind.