About a year ago, the idea was born to make the project Kunstzentrum Besondere Menschen known beyond its borders and to collaborate with international institutions. We have already successfully completed projects in Russia and Italy and are planning further projects in North and South America.
We are overwhelmed by the response and the warm feedback.
Kunstzentrum Besondere Menschen in Pereslawl - Russia
Left to right: Kathi, Svetlana und Maria
Maria Tietze, Katharina Kramer, Viktoria Costa and Sabine Schäffer-Leurpendeur have been invited to Russia to present their work. In Pereslavl-Salesski, a town of 42,000 inhabitants 130 kilometres northeast of Moscow, they took part in a dance project with several children and young people, some of whom were severely handicapped.
The performance at the Pereslavl Theatre was attended by professors and social work students from Yaroslavl University who were very interested in the methods of the German team. The cooperation came about at a symposium in Berlin. The dance project is part of an initiative sponsored by "Aktion Mensch", which Dorothea Volkert, Chairwoman of the German-Russian Society in Neckarsulm, initiated to improve the living conditions of disabled people in Russia.
The Russian supervisors of the dance project, social workers, etc., were also present. They took up the impulse given by the dancers from Ingolstadt and were introduced to the first steps of the method of the German artists. In addition, after the positive effects of the work with the children and young people had already been seen in the course of one week, spontaneous follow-up initiatives such as the establishment of a regular dance project with a local dancer, a monthly joint dance evening with disabled and non-disabled young people, and a working group for painting combined with movement were organised.
The Kunstzentrum Besondere Menschen was founded in 2010 and since then has enabled people with physical and mental disabilities in the Ingolstadt region to participate in art projects in the fields of dance, theatre, music, and painting. The project in Russia is regarded as the starting point of a new initiative by the Kunstzentrum and is to be installed in the coming years in many other countries that offer little or no opportunity for artistically influenced work for the disabled.
Source: Donaukurier
Photography by Armin Barth
Photography by Nicolas Guerrero
As part of an inclusive performance, the Ingolstadt Art Centre Besondere Menschen was invited to the Vatican with the support of the Caritas Center St. Vincent.
The Argentine artist Alejandro Marmo inaugurated his large sculptures "Virgin of Luján" and a sculpture from the "Cristo Obrero" series. The sculptures were designed by young people under his guidance. They collected a wide variety of metals in Buenos Aires and developed the larger-than-life works from them. The theme of the artworks is the "embrace" - the embrace as a healing message. Born from things that were thrown away or set aside.
Marmo was keen to broaden the idea of the embrace in the presentation of the artworks. He invited the dancers of the Kunstzentrum Besondere Menschen (Maria Tietze, Katharina Kramer, Marina Lösl, Sofie Fürbacher-Walter and Dara Sherry) as well as three musicians from Argentina to Italy. He has created an embrace of fine art, dance, and music. An embrace of Italy, Germany and Argentina.
For the three participants of the Besondere Menschen, this trip was a great experience. "They were, of course, part of an overall artistic idea. Just as, with their various disabilities, they are of course also a part of this society," as the Kunstzentrum reports. Marina Lösl says: "I think it's great that with inclusion and this project everyone can do art. Whether they want to dance or make music - everyone feels at home here. "
Source: Donaukurier
Photography (below) by Nicolas Guerrero
