What about Peace? Current CROSSING Project

Current CROSSING Project

What about Peace? Wie geht Frieden?

The project „What about Peace?“ addresses the question of how we can support each other in focusing on the potential of peace and experiencing self-efficacy instead of fear and powerlessness. The planned discourse is based on the assumption that enabling diversity is a fundamental prerequisite for preventing armed conflict. The project aims to create opportunities for people to see and show themselves as human beings, regardless of their origin, sexual orientation or religious beliefs. The events are open to anyone who wants to explore their own and collective conditions for mindful coexistence. The methodology for the artistic discourse will be developed in dialogue with international artists. This intercultural exchange aims to open up completely new perspectives that will emerge from the experimental nature of the process. It is about the experience of being able to develop positive impulses from one’s own activities and offers the opportunity to create new forms of peace work. The results of the joint artistic research will then be presented in exhibitions and will also form the basis for work in workshops. The collaboration involves, among others, staff from the Dutch ‘Stichting Rerun Producties’ and the ‘WHITE FLAG Kollektiv’. One of the venues is the newly founded art space CROSSING, where a wide variety of cultural events raise questions about transitions and the phenomenon of the in-between in order to develop impulses for new ways of living.

In dem Projekt „Wie geht Frieden?” geht es um die Frage, wie wir uns gegenseitig darin unterstützen können, den Fokus auf das Potential von Frieden zu richten und Selbstwirksamkeit statt Angst und Ohnmacht zu erleben. Dem geplanten Diskurs liegt die Annahme zugrunde, dass die Ermöglichung von Diversität eine Grundbedingung ist, kriegerische Auseinandersetzungen zu verhindern. In dem Projekt sollen Möglichkeiten geschaffen werden, dass sich Menschen als Menschen, unabhängig von Herkunft und sexueller oder religiöser Orientierung, sehen und zeigen können. Die Veranstaltungen sind offen für Alle, die sich mit den eigenen und kollektiven Bedingungen eines achtsamen Miteinanders auseinandersetzen wollen. Die Methodik für den künstlerischen Diskurs wird im  Dialog mit internationalen KünstlerInnen entwickelt. Dieser interkulturelle Austausch  zielt auf ganz neue Perspektiven, die sich aus dem experimentellen Charakter des Prozesses eröffnen werden. Es geht um die Erfahrung, aus eigener Tätigkeit heraus positive Impulse entwickeln zu können und bietet die Chance, neue Formen der Friedensarbeit entstehen zu lassen.Die Ergebnisse der gemeinsamen künstlerischen Forschung werden dann in Ausstellungen vermittelt und gleichzeitig auch Grundlage für  Arbeit in Workshops sein. Die Zusammenarbeit vollzieht sich u. A. mit MitarbeiterInnen der niederländischen „Stichting Rerun Producties“ und dem „WHITE FLAG Kollektiv“. Einer der Veranstaltungsorte ist der neugegründete Kunstraum CROSSING, in welchem in verschiedensten Kulturevents Fragen zu Übergängen und dem Phänomen des Dazwischen gestellt werden, um Impulse für neue Lebensformen zu entwickeln.

interviews

CROSSING Interviews

As an artistic research project “Crossing” is dedicated to find new and sustainable life strategies by crossing borders.
On the foundation that it is not the artists duty to give answers but to ask questions, this includes documentary- interviews with international artists in very different places, like Iceland, South Africa, Finland, Egypt and Libanon, in the near future in Greece,  Kuba and Mexico.
The social  changes, in my opinion, require a reflection on dealing with the issue of fear. Thus, in my interviews I try to explore how other artists react to the experience of uncertainty creating their own strategies, not only in a rational but intuitive way, in their art practice. The starting point of my work is the experience, that many problems caused by „globalization“ can be dued to an experience of separation. Not feeling the connection to others or the world causes fear, the main reason (and not only the effect) of most catastrophes that are happening in the world right now. The basic question of my artistic research will proceed from this Archimedean point, therefore: How can we develop the intense experience where we are not separate from our so-called ‘environment’? How can we achieve to reflect the specific kind of analogy between the human being and his/her living space at the level of a fundamental connection – as expressed, for example, in the view of the relationship between the microcosm and the macrocosm. How can we strengthen this connection through art?
In reference to Josef Beuys ́s “Social Sculpture” in my project the artistic process is the main source looking for transformation of the society in a sustainable way. The interpersonal exchange on the foundation of creating is the specific transformative potential of “Crossing” and the basis of the innovative character of the project. As an international language, art is a possibility of crossing the thresholds between cultures and individuals in an exchange with surprising innovative answers.
The new research process in ’25 and ’26 will be guided by the main question: ‘How does peace work?’

The results of the exchanges with international artists will be presented in an exhibition at the CROSSING. kunstraum in Essen, this website and catalog.

It is the aim of the project to show that cultural life/ – survive can be redefined and made possible through exchange rather than demarcation.

research

CROSSING RESEARCH

Research 2018 -2025

Since August 2018, Katharina Lökenhoff has been travelling for her artistic research project ‘Crossing,’ visiting Iceland, Finland, Egypt, Lebanon, and South Africa. She is investigating how people in different places respond to the experience of uncertainty and the global process of crossing borders. To this end, she will continue the interviews on new journeys starting in summer 2025.
So far, the interviews have shown that it is possible to discover new life strategies in the field of art: it has become clear that cultural life and survival take place through exchange and not through separation, and that art can be a way to connect with a general human consciousness that is free from group affiliation. A process similar to child’s play seems important here. My vision is to continue to provide new impetus for the preservation of the natural habitat and natural joie de vivre from this CROSSING process.
In the second CROSSING process, the central research question will be:

How does peace work?