Cologne, 26.09-01.10.2006
On the occasion of the 18. International Photokina in Cologne a project of Cultura21 took place from 26.09. till 01.10.2006 in the supplement-programme of the fair: the exhibition „Pescare nel tempo – fish in time “. The location of the event was the Ex-Refectory of the school of the Istituto Italo Svevo, Cologne , that is attended by German and Italian children.
Content of the project
- a reportage with 15 b/w-pictures by the Italian photograph Davide Dutto about the traditional culture of fishing at the Sicilian coast. This kind of fishing is the same since centuries and very ecological. The traditional fishermen-culture is in danger, because of the expansion of industrial fishing;
- an exhibition of 15 pictures by the German photographer Claus Dieter Geissler about the sea as garbage. Each object that floats on the seawater tells a story about a special age of development;
- the two works created a tension between reportage and art. This tension underlined the ambivalent relationship between human beings and nature: on the one hand we could eat what the sea produced for many centuries; on the other hand the nature is an environment ‘out there’, out of the human system and its perceived controlled order, that we use for dumping what we don’t need anymore.
- The opening-event was accompanied by lectures about the different contents of the exhibition: the traditional and local cultures; the ecological relationship between humans and sea; art in context (problems and potentials).
- School-classes visited the exhibition. Pupils could discuss with the artists about their works and experiences.
The objectives of the project were
- to mediate cultural and ecological contents through the „arts“. Rationality and emotions should be equally addressed;
- to promote communication primarily through visual language and less through verbal language;
- to bring the school in contact with other social groups (artists) and cultures (the traditional culture of fishermen in Sicily). To promote different creative learning processes in the school;
- Laboratory-project for social-ecological Event management;
- Public Relations for the artists and Cultura21.
