Projects

LANGNAU A.A., SWITZERLAND

The third cycle of the Mini-Zine-Library at the Schule im Widmer was dedicated to the question "Are artists at school fun or annoying? What exactly is fun? What is annoying?". (The project cycle was supported by Kulturagent.innen.) Over a period of seven weeks in Autumn/Winter, the children in grades 4 to 6 collected information in artistic workshops following questions and tried out variations of presentation in conveying the information they had collected. In doing so, we addressed the main question formulated above as well as the range of possible interpretations of so-called facts. Finally, two double-sided posters were printed and distributed to the children as well as sold at the Art Book Fair VOLUMES. (The "posters" can be found here).

LANGNAU A.A., SCHWEIZ
Der dritte Zyklus Mini-Zine-Library an der Schule im Widmer war der Frage «Sind Künstler.innen an der Schule Spass oder nervig? Was genau macht Spass? Was nervt?» verpflichtet. (Der Projektzyklus wurde unterstützt von Kulturagent.innen.) Über sieben Wochen im Herbst/Winter 2021 hinweg sammelten die Kinder der Klasse 4 bis 6 in künstlerischen Workshops Fragen folgend Informationen und erprobten Darstellungsvarianten in der Vermittlung der gesammelten Informationen. Dabei wurde sowohl die oben formulierte Leitfrage thematisiert, wie auch die Bandbreite möglicher Interpretationen von sogenannten Fakten. Zum Abschluss wurden zwei doppelseitige Poster gedruckt, die an die Kinder verteilt, wie auch an der Art Book Fair VOLUMES verkauft wurden. (Die «Poster» finden sich hier).

LANGNAU A.A., SWITZERLAND
Our second cycle of the Mini-Zine-Library at the Schule im Widmer (Autumn 2020) was conducted over a period of 7 weeks, again in collaboration with the Kulturagent.innen project. This time, the production format was a wall newspaper created by the pupils of grades 4 to 6,  the integration class and one workshop for the community. The themes for this year's artistic exploration were determined by the children at the start of the project and included health, friendship, diversity, and racism. Each week, we produced a "Wandzeitung" which was displayed all over the school building and on village boards. Finally, our editorial team of 5th graders worked on compiling the material from 8 editions of the wall newspaper into one in a bigger edition printed format that was presented to every participant at the end of the project (you can find the different issues of the "Wandzeitung" here).

LANGNAU A.A., SCHWEIZ
Unser zweiter Zyklus der Mini-Zine-Library an der Schule im Widmer (Herbst 2020) wurde über einen Zeitraum von sieben Wochen durchgeführt, wiederum in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Projekt Kulturagent.innen. Das Produktionsformat war dieses Mal eine Wandzeitung, die von den Schüler*innen der Klassen 4 bis 6, der Aufnahmeklasse und einem Workshop für die Gemeinde gemacht wurde. Die Themen der diesjährigen künstlerischen Workshops wurden von den Kindern zu Beginn des Projekts festgelegt und umfassten Gesundheit, Freundschaft, Vielfalt und Rassismus. Jede Woche produzierten wir eine Wandzeitung, die im ganzen Schulgebäude und in der Gemeinde ausgehängt wurde. Zum Abschluss arbeitete unser Redaktionsteam aus Fünftklässler*innen daran, das Material aus acht Ausgaben der Wandzeitung zu einem in grösserer Auflage gedruckten Format zusammenzustellen, das allen am Projekt Beteiligten zum Projektende überreicht wurde (die verschiedenen Ausgaben der «Wandzeitung» finden sich hier).

LANGNAU A.A., SWITZERLAND
In 2019, as part of the Kulturagent.innen project, we conducted the first official cycle of the Mini-Zine-Library in Switzerland, at the School im Widmer. Over a period of 10 weeks we held workshops for classes up to 6th grade and created over 200 zines related to the theme of identity. In addition we conducted community workshops at the school premises, the zines of which were included in the final library installation. The project was focused on participation, inclusion, self-empowerment and visibility of the pupils through contemporary art positions as well as offering new inputs for teachers. The work was well received by the students, teachers and community and was a great learning experience for us. The final event saw the Mini-Zine-Library presented to the school and the Langnau community in a one day fest that included listening sessions, dancing, reading and eating, or, quite simple in one word, sharing.
Following the project cycle at the school in Widmer, the Mini-Zine-Library was exhibited for almost two weeks at the Gemeindebibliothek (municipal library) of Langnau a.A. and presented at VOLUMES, where we also held a workshop.

KOLKATA, INDIA & LAHORE, PAKISTAN
From December 2018 through February 2019, we conducted workshops with over 300 children in both cities and approximately 50 teachers and grassroots activists to produce over 500 zines that were presented in the respective communities in Kolkata and a final event that took place at the end of the project in Lahore. We worked with different age groups from various social backgrounds; from girls from a poorer muslim neighbourhood to high-income private school in Kolkata and from children from a gypsy community to kindergardeners from an elite education institute in Lahore. Though we made sure that each group was provided the same materials and conceptual framework, our methodology and content did differ based on the context. Thus we catered to children of all skills including children who had never used colour pencils and were just beginning to learn to write.
The culmination of our work was celebrated in a beautiful final event in Lahore, at Imperial Public School, attended by people from different backgrounds—staff of the neighbourhood schools, artist friend’s, family members and most importantly, our authors. It was a picnic-fest with a beautiful presentation of the Mini-Zine-Library, with library guests reading the stories from far and close, enjoying the colours, shapes and patterns, enjoying drawing and crafts, science experiments, games, eating, a classical dance workshop and a drum circle that shook the neighbourhood!