As part of the “Mischen: possible” project, NGBK us initiating long-term co-operations with various educational institutions. NGBK scholarship winner and artist Mona Jas works together with participants to develop specific projects that take place both at NGBK as well as at the educational institutions concerned. NGBK provides the institutional framework, which the artist is free to use and experiment with. In this way art education and mediation become more than a service used merely to market culture as a "commodity" – it becomes a process with no predictable end product. The method used by Mona Jas to builds her artistic art mediation is based on reflection about cognitive principles. Art mediation is in this case a continuation of art. Questions of the individual identity of all the participants, stemming as they do from different cultural contexts located at the political focal points of society, play a role as elements in their collaboration. Processes of interpretation involved in the examination of art become part of sequences for action that – combined with each other and allowing unforeseeable developments to take place – are deliberately left unresolved. Inductive methods which themselves are performative-artistic in nature are preferred. Mona Jas has chosen to focus her investigations, conducted within the framework of an art education and mediation research scholarship, on the transdisciplinary field of visual studies. They are directed towards challenging a way of thinking that regards identities as something inherent and static. In her work Mona Jas also investigates linguistic systems and non verbal communication processes such as facial expression and gesture. Her main concern lies with the inclusion of artistic processes into language learning.
Co-operation projects have been started with the schools Menzel Oberschule (Tiergarten), Peter-Jordan-Schule (Charlottenburg), and Kurt Löwenstein Schule (Neukölln) as well as with Akarsu e.V. (Kreuzberg). Menzel Oberschule and NGBK have agreed on a three-year patronage scheme. The cooperation was developed within the framework of Berlin’s campaign for cultural education, “Offensive Kulturelle Bildung” coordinated by Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH.
Student guided tours / At the “Selected Artists“ exhibition school students from Claudia Schönherr's arts class spoke about their own selections from the show. Futrher guided tours are planned for future exhibitions. They provide a good opportunity to find out directly from young adults how they approach artistic positions.
"Audio Guide" a project by Tonia Andresen, final year student at Menzel Oberschule and Clara Fohrbeck, currently studying for a degree in ‘Arts & Heritage - Policy, Management and Education’ at the University of Maastricht, Netherlands, both of whom are art education interns. The team developed an audio guide to the works shown in the NGBK's“Selected Artists” exhibition in 2010, based on interviews conducted with visitors. Views of the installations in exhibition space are accompanied by spoken ideas and opinions rellating to the individual works.
"Do spiders have hooves? Can dogs think?“ Coordination and project management for the schools projects, funded by Bezirksamt Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, in cooperation with Greta Hoheisel. Together with Year 6 students from Fichtelgebirge Grundschule Hoheisel and Jas undertake joint explorations of the animal kingdom (looking for spiders in the school building, studying neighbourhood dogs, inviting guidedogs into school, introducing a bird spider to the class) and develop artistic actions in and around Kreuzberg. The results will be presented in a film shown at NGBK, Ballhaus Naunynstraße, the window of a pet shop and the sponsors' room at Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien.
„Was du liebst, lass frei ...“ ("If you love it, let it go ...) a joint project with Year 7 students of Menzel Oberschule. One focus is on the current concept of society internalized by young people – what does this concept look like, what role does “freedom” play? What does freedom mean today? At the heart of the project is the development and realization of an "outsize" book of freedom, which will also play a part on stage in January 2010 accompanied by a performance by the group. After that the book will be given a permanent place at the school.
"Open workshops" In addition, open workshops at NGBK are offered on a regular basis – as in the case of the students of the museum education course at the Federal Academy of Cultural Education in Wolfenbüttel. In the first part of each workshop the participants use artistic methods to develop individual positions relating to topics from the current exhibition, followed in the second part by direct engagement with the exhibited works. The results can be presented in the information zone of the current exhibition.
"Wine & Cheese" Since in July 2009 international artists and curators have been invited to regular informal wine and cheese get-togethers at NGBK. Professionals with a passionate commitment to art are given a forum to exchange experiences, to build networks, to talk about side effects, to share solutions and to generate new ideas. Developed by NGBK coordinator Wibke Behrens in cooperation with London based artist and curator Kate Squires.
Academic accompaniment Students of the seminar “cultural management and cultural politics in Berlin” and their teacher Dr. Klaus-Peter Pollück of the department of political and social sciences at FU Berlin will be evaluating “Mischen: possible”. The critical evaluation of the project is the subject of Elmar Ott’s diploma thesis, to be published in June 2010. „www.mischen-possible.org/blog“ / An accompanying documentation of all activities is under construction. An overview of all the scholarship projects is to be published in September 2010.
Please address all enquiries (including requests for internships, workshops, lectures etc.) directly to Mona Jas,
e-mail:
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or phone: 030 28 04 55 40.
Mona Jas, born in Rheden/Netherlands, 1995 master student of Prof. Katharina Sieverding in Visual Studies, UDK Berlin. 1995-1997 Berlin Senate scholarship for young talents. 1998 DAAD travel grant for Quebec/Canada and New York/USA. 1999 Berlin Senate working scholarship. 1999 travel grant for Istanbul. 2004 “Goldrausch”-Scholarship for female artists. 2008-2010 Scholarship for art mediation at NGBK Regular participation in international projects and exhibitions, currently: "Welchen Raum braucht die Kunst?" (AT) autumn 2010 – a group exhibition as part of the Goethe Institut's culture and development initiative, a cooperation between Galerie y (Minsk) and NGBK (Berlin). 6. Berlin Biennale, member of the jury for the selection of art education satellite projects
www.finten.org Coordination and project management for the art education and mediation project, funded by Offensive kulturelle Bildung Berlin, Kulturprojekte. Finten is taking place to coincide with the Hauptstadtkulturfonds funded temporary monument (Denkmal 9841) to the German Sinto boxer Johann Trollmann by Bewegung Nurr and Florian Göpfert (www.trollmann.info). Together with two school classes from Carl-von-Ossietzky- Oberschule and a project group from Evangelische Schule Berlin Zentrum various artists (Emese Benkö and André J. Raatzsch [Culture & Development-Team for Emancipation of Roma], Alekos Hofstetter, Mona Jas, Dejan Markovic, Nino Nihad Pusija) will provide introductions to the work and to Trollmann's own history as well as to Sinti and Roma culture in workshops held at the Kreativ- und Bildungszentrum der gelben Villa.
Planned:
„Die Plejaden“ Individual exhibition, Studio d’Arte Contemporanea di Pino Casagrande, Rome, Italy
Website www.inter-views.org