In a time of political failure, the dissolution of international social contracts and increasing nationalisms, art can be a field of experimentation for new forms of dialogue. To actively accompany people in a time of social upheaval, additional cultural practices are needed that open up new levels of understanding beyond rehearsed, ritualized forms of communication. Art can open up spaces in which new, unfamiliar and unusual forms of dialogue can be playfully developed and experimentally tested. The project explores new forms of expression for communication.

As part of the project “Labor Europa”, the art space hase29 invites you to carry out an artistic research project on the topic of “new forms of communication”.

The aim is to question forms of interaction and cultures of dialogue in an exploratory, open artistic discourse. Participatory concepts or playful experimental arrangements involving the audience are welcome. However, other artistic media are also permitted, drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, photographic and video works or performances.

Organizers

hase29 (www.hase29.de)

In the laboratory performance “Abandoned (cultural) Practices” the Kunsthalle Osnabrück and the Theater Osnabrück together with the artist and art mediator Simon Niemann invite to a Europe-wide, artistic research, the results of which will be the starting point for a joint work in August 2023.

The young art form of performance art is intended to provide a broad and interdisciplinary approach to the laboratory theme, and the project will allow people from all artistic disciplines to participate.

Inspired by the School of the Art Institute Chicago’s summer course Re-Abandoned Practices Institute (www.saic.edu/academics/departments/performance), Lab Performance explores the theme of “banished (cultural) practices.” Over time, in the wake of mechanization, global pandemics, or repressive power structures, (cultural) practices are lost or new ones emerge, become dominant, and inscribe themselves into our everyday lives. They shape our understanding of normality.

We are surrounded by practices, they consciously or subconsciously determine and shape our everyday life. Through them we encounter our environment and the people around us. They always express themselves through our bodies, are performative and give us the possibility to communicate without language. Precisely because they have such a great influence on us and the world, they are passed on from generation to generation – or else forbidden, forgotten or alienated.

Whether it’s the sound of a fax machine, a cassette tape and pencil, preparing food together, the way I style my hair, or the eventual disappearance of drive-in movie theaters and domestic flights, the longer we look around and the more we talk to people about the past, present, and future, the more banned practices we will find. It is to this very research process that we invite the participants of Labor Performance. Gathering concrete examples of practices from all participants will be the starting point for the elaboration of a public performance that deals with the significance and impactfulness of banished (cultural) practices.

Organizers

Kunsthalle Osnabrück (www.kunsthalle.osnabrueck.de)  and Theater Osnabrück (www.theater-osnabrueck.de)

Bad lines, sudden disconnects and missed calls: The Digital Media and Games Lab will be tackling the topic of “communication difficulties” – in Europe and beyond.  And we invite you to join us:

Implement your own media projects on the distortion of discourses and the construction of realities. On fake news, filter bubbles or troll armies – in short, on the current (im)possibility of talking to each other in and through the media.

Media types and formats are available for your project, including:

• Film (short film, documentary, experimental film, 360° video,…).
• Digital games & playable experiences (serious games, walking simulators, text adventures,…)
• Mixed Media & Crossmedia Experiments
• Hybrid formats (digital 360° spaces, video walks, video installations, machinima…)
• Social media formats
• Or a mix of the above options: If you feel like it, we’ll try to make it happen!

The participants of the lab will be invited to Osnabrück to realize their projects, either in a team or individually. The finished works will then be presented publicly, as a media collage, as part of the Osnabrück Culture Night.

Organizers

European Media Art Festivals (www.emaf.de), the LAG Jugend & Film Niedersachsen (www.lag-jugend-und-film.de/) and the Medienwerkstatt werk.statt.

How will we remember Europe in the future? Will Europe ever achieve lasting peace? To achieve peaceful understandings, we should look at communication about past and present wars in Europe.

As a distinguished “City of Peace” dedicated to strengthening tolerance and intercultural understanding, Osnabrück is the perfect place to dive deeper into the topic of “War and Peace in European Remembrance Culture.” In 2023, we will celebrate the 375th anniversary of the Peace of Westphalia, the first ever “European Conference.” Despite this, European cities and territories continue to be torn apart by new confrontations to this day, and the dream of a truly peaceful Europe remains unfulfilled. Communication about conflict-ridden pasts either founded wars or fostered peace.

The international lab will provide a forum for young Europeans to exchange ideas on the topic and learn more about it from a transnational perspective. Participants will have the opportunity to actively shape the workshop and design an international exhibition on the lab theme. To make this possible, all participants are invited to bring an object related to the theme “War and Peace in European Memory Culture”. This object should be related to the participant’s own history and possibly also to the history of the country of origin.

The program includes guest lectures, discussions, a meeting with eyewitnesses of the Second World War and study visits to museums and places relevant to the topic in and outside Osnabrück.

Please send a short CV and a letter of motivation, which includes a description of the object to be brought, to: lab.europe@osnabrueck.de.

Organizers

Museumsquartier Osnabrück (www.museumsquartier-osnabrueck.de) , Erich-Maria-Remarque-Friedenszentrum Osnabrück (www.remarque.uni-osnabrueck.de)  and the Gestapokeller and Augustaschacht memorials (www.gedenkstaetten-augustaschacht-osnabrueck.de).