The Treffpunkt ostZONE events in Prohlis took place in cooperation with ZU HAUSE IN PROHLIS e.V., Musaik – Grenzenlos musizieren e.V., Malteser Hilfsdienst e.V. and JugendKunstschule Dresden.
11.09.2021 – Podium discussion
Clichés and prejudices with Douha AlFayyad (author), Luis Mazuze (former contract worker from Mozambique) and Dr. Josef Schneider (Chairman – Euro-Bridge e.V.)
Moderation: Henriette Stapf | Live-Visualization, Dokumentation: BENUZ
Arriving in Dresden. First impressions. Life yesterday and today. Luis Mazuze came from Mozambique in 1980. As a contract worker. Some treated him like a little child, “that’s how you cross a street.” Marginalized, with few exceptions. Work in a brewery, training, master, study – brewmaster. He founds Afropa e.V., association for African-European understanding. Dresden is his home. Dr. Schneider is a Volga German. Russian-German from the Ukraine. He came in the 1990s. Late resettlers. Accommodation in barracks. German courses. Exclusion. Education and sports saved him. He founded the association Euro-Bridge e.V. Douha AlFayyad came from Syria in 2014 to study. West Germany, East Germany. Is there a difference? She likes living in Dresden. At first, she thought the language was the reason she couldn’t understand. Questions from the audience: What can we do? What does racism mean in our own lives? How can we reduce prejudices? Acknowledge realities. Live two sides. Always friendly. BENUZ superimposes the three biographies. Something new emerges.
BENUZ: Canvas 120 cm x 120 cm, acrylic; calligraphy
“I have accompanied the event with my association painting. I took bright colors for my painting, because our world is colorful and diverse, even in Dresden.
On the canvas the face is drawn from the abstract prototype of a person in calligraphy style. Calligraphy style means a lot to me. This technique is discovered in many ancient cultures: Greece, China, Japan, Korea. There are Western, Hebrew, Arabic and Slavic calligraphy.
Among other things, I heard the following terms during the participants’ conversations and integrated them into the painting as letters, words and graphic elements: Home, possibilities, hope, typical, country, decision, memory, guilt.
Very often, especially in Dresden, I hear how we foreigners are criticized and hated by some locals. This is mostly done by Germans who do nothing at all for their own homeland, who only want to take and have.
I really liked the opinion of a contemporary witness from the podium and I share that: In the end, it is not important where people come from, but what they do for society and culture.” (BENUZ)
18. & 25.09.2021 – Biography Art Workshop
Two workshop days with the artists Melissa Wagner and BENUZ
Day 1 – Prohlis celebrates the 30th autumn festival. We are in the middle of it, the Quartiersmanagement Prohlis and the association ZUHAUSE IN PROHLIS e.V. have invited us to the KIEZ. Melissa Wagner takes out her brown wrapping paper, BENUZ hangs up a huge canvas and gets the spray cans ready. Before we know it, the room fills up.
BENUZ teaches the basics of calligraphic graffiti art. Memory through writing. Christine thinks of Freygang – the band of her youth – and writes the name of the musician [Greiner]-Pol. Akam shows Evgenia how to write the word “freedom” in Farsi. Soon they all dare to use the spray cans. Colorful excerpts from life emerge and become a collaborative work. Melissa Wagner shows Rita, Evgenia, Vlada and Wolfgang how masks are formed from wrapping paper: Masks of everyday life or masks of fantasy. Stories about youth experiences are exchanged. Evgenia decides on a hat. In between, Melissa keeps the numerous children busy with “body painting”. Their faces and hands decorate great patterns and pictures. Everyone has fun.
Melissa Wagner: Masks and paper objects
“The original plan was to use the media of mask making and performance to search for one’s own identity with the participants. What role do one’s own experiences, strategies of adaptation or the fulfillment of expectations by taking on certain roles in the social structure play in this context? Due to logistical changes (participation in the Prohlis Autumn Festival and thus no fixed group during the two days of the workshop), various objects were created out of paper – apart from the planned masks – that were related to the biographies of the workshop participants.
For this purpose, the participants entered into a dialogue about life in the “ostZONE”, their longings and the reality they experienced in the “West”. The ideas that emerged were implemented using wrapping paper, wet adhesive tape, hot glue, acrylic paint and various materials from the context of the participants (e.g. types of beads depending on the home country or scraps of fabric with certain memories).” (Melissa Wagner)
Day 2 – The weather plays along, we can use the wonderful garden in the Palitzschhof. The big screen finds a place at the baking house. Inge has brought her Chinese tandem partner and other friends with Chinese roots. Together with BENUZ, Alaa Eddin, Nazanin, Inge, Susanne and Elena they try out calligraphy with brush and ink. Pictures are created. Spraying on the graffiti canvas this time leaves many small monsters and big eyes. Colorful.
Evgenia continues to design her hat. Wolfgang and Verena work on their masks, Wolfgang talks about the NVA. The Cold War comes up. The turnaround. How enemy countries became one country. Open borders. Evgenia nods and shows her finished Chernobyl hat. She was never allowed back into her room, her house, her city. At the final round, everyone briefly presents their work. Personal memories were created with their hands. Painful and funny ones. The youngest participant (2 years old) is amazed.
BENUZ: Canvases with calligraphy and graffiti
“The participants were given the task of writing various terms on the topics of biography, family history, migration, resettlement, feelings and memories of home in their original languages on paper in calligraphy style. Then the words were transferred to a large surface: sprayed, drawn and painted.
At the first workshop I was very surprised by the number of visitors: people of different cultures, nationalities and generations kept coming and with great joy painting and spraying were tried out. People drew in different languages: Russian, Arabic, Kurdish, Farsi… I liked that very much.
Our joint results on a large surface gave me the following thoughts: In the labyrinth of life, it doesn’t matter where you are. What is important and transcendent is your personal development and what you leave behind for others. The drastic changes from one place to another open wounds, but also possibilities. In the end, you are alone and go through this life. Our task in the here and now is to work on having a firm face and a true heart.” (BENUZ)
The project Treffpunkt ostZONE. Remember and Shape is funded by the House of Resources Dresden +. This measure is co-financed with tax funds on the basis of the budget passed by the Saxon state parliament within the framework of the state program Integrative Measures.
