Seven-year-old girl, from the heavily bombed Aleppo. Seven-year-old soccer player, from ex-Yugoslavia. Seven-year-old refugee from Kabul. Ten year old girl from Afghanistan, ten year old boy from Ethiopia. Double: Fifteen year old girl from Damascus. She had a place at school, what other children were waiting for, her parents forbade it, they would not be able to write and read either. Besides, she would soon be married. Three Works by a three-year-old girl from Mosul and beneath the ravishingly airy dandelions of a ten-year-old girl from Afghanistan, made with Tipp-Ex.
we build our city. Kinderstern Cooperation Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
Being private the greatest wish of all, it cannot exist in a refugee home. Idea of this project, funded by IMI Knoebels Social Sculpture Kinderstern, realised with artist Bernd Kastner (Kunstakademie Düsseldorf) and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf:
to draw a house in which they want to live with thier families, build it in clay put them together to form an own city. At the same time, it was an ideal opportunity to leave the confined, boring space of a refugee centre with the children. We went on excursions to beautiful neighbourhoods, social hotspots, villages, Eltz Castle and small towns to see how differently people live. Their houses have little in common with what they have seen. It correspond to their homesickness. A seven-year-old Mongolian girl, who has been on the run for many years builds a round house, the six-year-oldgirl from Baghdad designed a house on stilts. Important, the prison for the bad guys, a public bath, a grocery, a skating rink. What else we did:
Excursions, getting out of the unbearable confinement and the stressful tensions in the refugee home. In addition, fencing twice a week, swimming three times a week. Ice skating, sledding, visiting adventurous playgrounds. Dance workshops with performances in a small theater. And museums. The tip from IMI Knoebel was to ask the children to say which painting from the museum they would like to have at home. That was the hit.
