LABS

Lab Visual Art: "NOW YOU - Rethinking dialogues”
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.
Participants
Europeans at the age of 18-24 years. Prerequisite is that you are a student at an art school or do artistic practice at colleges and universities.
Application
Please send us together with your CV a project outline with an artistic concept, which you would like to realize within the 10-day stay in Osnabrück. The works produced during this period will be presented to the public in an exhibition at the end of “Lab Europe”. The exhibition will remain accessible to the public for another week in the Kunstraum hase29 and will be documented photographically.
General Conditions
Material costs up to 700,- € per participant* will be covered. The material requirements are to be named and justified in the project outline, if they are not self-explanatory. In addition, the organizer will try to provide special materials or technology in the form of sponsoring, if required. A return of the material artworks to the artists at the end of the exhibition is subject to prior agreement and depends on the shipping possibility and the amount of the transport costs. Participants agree to these conditions with their applications.
Organizers
hase29 (www.hase29.de)

Lab performance: ”Abandoned (cultural) Practices”
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.
Participants
Europeans aged 18-25 who are interested in a creative process in a group and are open to trying out new things. First contact with the performative arts in the form of an own artistic practice or an intensive interest is desirable, but not a prerequisite. Furthermore, the willingness to participate in the presentation of the final results in the form of a public performance should be present.
Application
Please send us a short bio (max. 800 characters with spaces) and your own practice example on the topic of “Banned Practices” as well as a question that arose from the research on your example. (Max. 1 DINA4 page)
Organizers
Kunsthalle Osnabrück (www.kunsthalle.osnabrueck.de) and Theater Osnabrück (www.theater-osnabrueck.de)

Lab digital Media and Games: "Mixed Media – Mixed Messages!?”
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.
Participants
Europeans at the age of 18-25 years, which can come from different disciplines. Prerequisite is interest in the topic.
General Conditions
Basic technical equipment for the project work is available on site. At the same time, participants are welcome to bring their own equipment or materials.
Application
Please send a short CV and a brief overview of the planned project (if already available) and its technical and design framework.
Organizers
European Media Art Festivals (www.emaf.de), the LAG Jugend & Film Niedersachsen (www.lag-jugend-und-film.de/) and the Medienwerkstatt werk.statt.

Lab history: ”War and Peace in European history”
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.
Participants
12-15 Europeans aged 18-25, who may come from different disciplines. The prerequisite is interest in the topic. Participants are encouraged to actively participate in the discussions and share their experiences. The main language of communication is English.
Application
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).

Lab music: ”Pieces of Joy (Joy of Peace)”
The Institute of Music of the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences offers the laboratory “Pieces of Joy (Joy of Peace)”, a workshop for singers, as part of the project “Lab Europe” in Osnabrück. Together with the singer Winnie Brückner and the pianist Philipp Cislewicz (Berlin), arrangements will be developed during the workshop week which will be presented together with the group in small concerts in the Bergkirche in Osnabrück. Both teachers bring a wealth of experience in music education at universities and in the independent scene and as musicians.
Winnie Brückner studied jazz vocals and composition in Weimar and Lucerne and received the “Leipziger Jazznachwuchs-Stipendium”. She is the founder and musical director of “niniwe – Vocal Art” with which she won numerous prizes (e.g. Graz, Tampere, Taipei, Aarhus, Seoul). She collaborates with various other bands and projects and tours worldwide in different formations (e.g. shoot the moon, glücklich1, Max Andrzejewski’s Hütte, Vox Nostra, Frank Möbus, Daniel Erdmann, Sebastian Studnitzky, Stefan Schultze, Nicolai Thaerichen, Raymond Macdonald, Maggie Nichols & Günter Baby Sommer).
She teaches jazz singing, arranging and choir at the HfM “Franz Liszt” in Weimar, at the Bundesakademie Trossingen and at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. She arranges for various musical ensembles. Some of her arrangements have been published by Helbling Verlag. She lives in Berlin. Philipp Cieslewicz was a member of the Tölzer Knabenchor from 1985 – 1991 (numerous performances at home and abroad as a soloist with Claudio Abbado, George Solti, Leonard Bernstein, among others). From 1998 – 2003 he studied jazz piano at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich and at the HfM Franz Liszt Weimar. He has had private voice lessons with Gundula Anders, Leipzig and Regina Jakobi, Berlin, among others. He is a regular member of the Kammerchor Stuttgart, Vocalconsort Berlin and Vocalensemble Rastatt. His teaching activities led him to the HfM “Franz Liszt” Weimar and to the HMTM Hannover. Since 2004 he lives in Berlin as a freelance pianist and singer.
Participants
10 young singers aged 18 to 25. The prerequisite is that you have good musical knowledge and skills as an amateur musician or student.
Application
Send us your application, written in English, to participate in the Music Lab. It should include a curriculum vitae with photo, information about the instrument and the musical career. In addition, we ask you to submit songs, including your own compositions, with which you particularly identify and which are related to the theme of peace.
Organizers
Institute for Music of the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences (IfM) (www.hs-osnabrueck.de/de/ifm)