The exhibition was accompanied by a one-day symposium at the 13th of August 2023, where initiators and invited artists came together to exchange ideas, engage in discussions, and map out the connections between their works, creating a network of dialogue. This network will consist of artists who find inspiration in the broad and profound themes embodied by the White Flag.
The longing for this room arose in confrontation with current reports of war and other catastrophes and the painful question that arises: can art helps, protects and nourishes us in the event of war or truly unbearable catastrophes? Based on this question, I would like to enable an experience in the room that can create an impulse for a new orientation.
The WHITE FLAG Art Project is an international endeavor led by a group of artists with the goal of exploring the artistic possibilities and significance of the white flag, in response to the pressing global challenges we face today on levels of our lives.
Wie gehen wir in der Kunst mit Zukunftsangst und Sinnverlust um? Das sind Fragen, mit denen sich das WHITE FLAG Art Project beschäftigt. WHITE FLAG ist ein internationales, von Künstler*innen geleitetes Projekt, das die „Weiße Flagge“ als künstlerisches Thema erforscht, um aktuelle globale Herausforderungen aufzugreifen und zu bearbeiten.
The artists* Karin van der Molen (NL), Katharina Lökenhoff (D), Pat van Boeckel (NL) and Karem Ibrahim (EG/GB) present the WHITE FLAG art project at Kunsthaus Essen. It aims to explore the artistic possibilities and meaning of the "White Flag" as a response to global challenges and crises. The "White Flag" stands for humanity, empathy, non-knowledge and non-nationalism.
Starting this project means to start decolonizing my inner and outer patriachalic structure of seperation and competition. It means to strengthen my alignment to Mother Earth. MAPPING is my tool.
This video was made in context of the project "SATELLITES | LABORATORY FOR SOUND AND SOUL", which aims to question conventional expectations of language as a form of communication through art. Its a collaboration with Karem Ibrahim.
SATELLITES | LABORATORY FOR SOUND AND SOUL! is an internationally oriented, artistic cooperation project, conceived and curated by Beate Gärtner, Julia Priss and Scarlett Schauerte, in which artists from 15 countries participate: - China, England, Egypt, France, India, Lithuania, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, and Germany.
it´s not an utopia - it´s not a distopia- it is a vision, a research - out of introspection - an opening for a new perception of the inner and outer world as one
Diese Entgrenzung des Kunstbegriffes mache ich sofort mit. Vielleicht ist es das einzig Sinnvolle im Leben, Kinder zu erziehen und vielleicht ist es das einzig Künstlerische.
Selten hat mich eine Frau so beeindruck wie sie. Schon als ich sie in der Hotelhalle zum ersten mal sah, erschien sie mir als ein Mensch, dem es gelungen ist, sich selbst zu verwirklichen.
Aus meinen Fragen an die Tänzerin des "Tanztheaters Wuppertals Pina Bausch" nach ihren Erfahrungen mit dem Phänomen der Schwelle und der Angst entwickelte sich ein Gespräch, welches aus der Erinnerung niedergeschrieben wird.
Der Tänzer Janusz Subicz berichtet über seine Erfahrungen mit den Phänomenen der Schwelle und Angst. Seine Formulierungen habe ich aus der Erinnerung niedegeschrieben.
Die Ausstellung "CROSSING" in Cape Town gemeinsam mit Karem Ibrahim war der bisherige Höhepunkt des Projekts. Mein Aufenthalt vom 9. Januar - 28. Februar 2019 in Greatmore Studios, Cape Town, Südafrika, war eine herrliche Zeit voller vielfältiger Schwellenerfahrungen.
Vom 25. Oktober - 8. November 2018 hat die Off Biennale Cairo "Something Else" in Ägypten stattgefunden. Der Bericht gibt Einblicke in eine wunderbare Zeit voller großartiger Begegnungen und Herausforderungen.
In der Zeit vom 1. -30. September 2018 habe ich im Arteles Creative Center in Haukijärvi, Finnland, gearbeitet. Hier berichte ich von den eigenen CROSSING - Prozessen, die im Gegensatz zu den folgenden Interview-Auswertungen, eine eher persönliche Seite des Reiseprojekts widerspiegeln.
Bericht über die erste CROSSING Station im August 2018: Island
Die Reiseberichte spiegeln meinen eigenen CROSSING-Prozess und ergänzen die folgenden Interviewauswertungen und anderen Texte des Forschungsprojekts auf einer mehr persönlichen Ebene.
Ich erläutere einige Begriffe für die Auseinandersetzung mit dem Phänomen der Angst im Rahmen des CROSSING Projekts und als Grundlage für die Auswertung der Interviews.
The "Skins at eye level" are showing the diversity of faces in variety forms of portraying. Surrounded by this images we hear cutouts of the CROSSING interviews: artists are talking about their experience of the phenomenon of fear.
We love the idea of a borderless world. A sculptural installation invites to travers once own threshold, hearing words about other individual Crossing-processes. My skins are protecting this jorney.
In the exhibition "Crossing" I showed new works, created in Cape Town as results of my research interviews and the impressions of the recent situation in South Africa. After the Biennale in Cairo I started an exchange with the artist Karem Ibrahim about the issue of borders. The exhibition at Greatmore Studios is the beginning of our cooperation.
Crossing Cape Town was an intense experience. I am extremely grateful for meeting so many wonderful people and for the fantastic, challenging adventures I managed in this beautiful, traumatized country.
Crossing Cape Town takes place in different ways:With my wax-skins, my interviews andin collaboration with Karem Ibrahim in a special political and performative way.
Showing four skins and a video installation at the "Something Else - Off Biennale Cairo" was a wonderful experience. I am especially grateful for the wonderful cooperation with the young artist Sophia Lökenhoff, my daughter.
With the session "Future enabling methods in times of Digital Reality" I presented my artistic research-project CROSSING at The 8th International Conference on Sustainability & Responsibility, 16th of November 2018 in Cologne, Germany. Here is the resume.
I have appreciated the interview with this wonderful artist: Based in Berlin, investigating the social role of the artist through embedded drawing practice in public spaces.
"I’ve also been thinking a lot about a line from Rousseau where he says that if you want to be useful, it is essential to be read in the provinces. I wonder what would happen to my work if I took this seriously." C. T.
“She explore how to transmit in images the times of nature. Time of landscape, time of rock, time of dreams, our time. The time of life, life as a sum of existences that flows and materializes in different times.”I am grateful for meeting this strong woman!
Intense working period in Finland: It is not about producing new art works… its is always about attitude….to avoid inner violence and struggling against yourself, to overcome ambition and competition, to open to trust and to the power of colour, form, material, yourself.
I am grateful for the possibility to stay in this amazing place. What a studio! what awonderful nature! Focussing on the Crossing-Interviews and my own artistic practice I will be without internet for a while. Results from Island and Finland will be prepared.
I made this installation out of respect and in memory of a wise woman, who knows equally the brutality and beauty of life. Sunday 26.August 2018, 16.00 -18.00 h, NES Artist Residency Skagaströnd
I make this installation out of respect and in memory of a wise woman, who knows equally the brutality and beauty of life. Sunday 26.August 2018, 16.00 -18.00 h, NES Artist Residency Skagaströnd
Die Zentrale Methode von “Crossing“ ist der Dialog und die unerwartete Begegnung. Parallel dazu werde ich meine eigenen künstlerischen Arbeitsmethoden weiterentwickeln.
1.- 30. August 2018 : NES, Artist Residency Skagaströnd, Island, I. - 30. September 2018: Arteles Creative Center Haukijärvi, Finnland 25. Oktober - 8. November 2018: Off Biennale Cairo: Something Else, Ägypten 1. Dezember 2018 - 28. Februar 2019: Greatmore Art Cape Town, Südafrika 2. - 26. April, 2019: ACE, Buenos Aires, Argentinien 13.-27. Mai 2019: Numerovernti Florenz, Italien Juni/Juli 2019: Sam Rit Residency, Thailand
Die Durchführung des Projekts ist nur durch finanzielle Unterstützung realisierbar. Ich danke der Zukunftsstiftung Mensch und Gesellschaft für ihre großzügige Spende. Weitere Hilfe ist dringend notwendig! :