WIRKEREI. Initiative for cultural development

Der Verein „WIRKEREI. Initiative für kulturelle Entwicklung e.V.“ fördert innovative Projekte zur Begegnung von Kulturen, Religionen und Generationen im Sinne eines friedlichen, gerechten und nachhaltigen Zusammenlebens von Menschen.

Projects

LUHMUS

A cultural intervention

In the center of the cemetery, a significant, artistically expressive structure made of rammed earth ("On the Humus of History," Martin Rauch) is being built. The ensemble of two buildings captivates with its unique aesthetics and atmosphere. The newly created space will be used by cultural and educational institutions. Social, municipal, and religious institutions offer services here. Questions of identity, the sustainable development of society and the world, and life and death have a new, symbolic place here. A place of remembrance for the future.

People meet at LUHMUS for cultural events. Others meet during the day for a chat over cappuccino or lunch. Some seek the silence in the "walk-in sculpture” or in “kontemplativen Garten". The cemetery is discovered as a vital “Habitat" In the heart of the city, in the neighborhood, in the village. An open space for encounters.

ARTISTIC ARCHITECTURE
Anna Heringer (anna-heringer.com) and

Martin Rauch (lehmtonerde.at/de)

Planning association Heringer&Rauch

IDEA AND CONCEPT
Erhard Ufermann (erhard-ufermann.eu)

BUILDER
Municipality / Cemetery operator / Community / Society / Investor / Foundation

DAS BAND / THE RIBBON

A global offensive

سلام

שלום

和平

peace

An unjust world order, current wars, and the reckless and self-centered consumption of resources by industrialized nations harm children first and foremost. But what all children, all people in the world, need for their development and a fulfilling life is peace. Not the absence of war, disasters, and violence, but peace in a comprehensive and just sense.

In the "global village," people are gradually realizing their respective dependence on people in other countries and cultures. We are interdependent. Worldwide. Not just through "supply chains." The coronavirus, refugee movements, and the climate crisis are examples of how consequences cannot be viewed in isolation from their causes. This realization and corresponding, new action will be crucial for humanity's future viability.

Idea:
The WIRKEREI e.V. association is offering a global aid organization the idea of weaving a 42,000-kilometer-long ribbon. It could be wrapped around the Earth once. The word PEACE is repeated on this ribbon in a hundred languages. It is a powerful symbol that all children and people in this world want to live in peace and justice, and that we are all connected and dependent on one another. The ribbon will be cut into half-meter sections and offered for sale worldwide as a bracelet. The buyer thus becomes part of a global movement.

The focus is not on a call for donations and an appeal to people's willingness to help. The focus is on identifying with the idea. Wearing the BAND is a transpolitical, transcultural statement and is developing into a cult. By purchasing the BAND, you simultaneously become a supporter of the meaningful work of a global aid organization.

WE ARE ART

More than an exhibition

Bild: c Kurt-Ulrich Wiggers

The visitors to an exhibition are not simply consumers. They are simultaneously creative agents, artists, and objects of the exhibition.

At the heart of the idea is Joseph Beuys's statement: "Every person is an artist." However, this statement doesn't remain the subject of a cultural-historical discourse; rather, it offers people a concrete, attractive platform for their own creative and artistic expression.

Beuys's approach is expanded to the extent that people are always both creative agents and objects of the actions of others. We are never merely artists, but always also sculptures. At our best, we also work on ourselves. As social beings with a corresponding history spanning generations and an integration into current systems and experiences, we develop through encounters (Buber). In this, we are both subjects and objects of complex debates. Our being, our future, or the history of our impact, is always a consequence of our creation as well as of being created.