• Fri 17 05 2019 •
SOLID SKILLS PRACTICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA

with LENIO KAKLEA and ANNIKA STADLER

The WerkStadt is a space that every neighbourhood needs: a place to exchange knowledge; a meeting place in which old and new neighbours come together with artists and scholars from around the world; a place that serves diverse groups like refugee men, Lebanese women or young students. Here, work-shops on 3-D printing and artificial intelligence are held; sometimes there is a pop-up sound studio; here people cook, film, sew or photograph, and the results are put on public display. The WerkStadt is a forum for the needs of the people who call Katernberg home — for that which is already there and that which can or shall come in the future.
Earlier, when the coal mines were still in operation, miners and their families lived in the area, but since the mine shafts were shut down and the coke ovens went cold, everything has changed here. In order ‘to confront the elemental challenges of life’ and ‘to deal with everything that bombards you’, as Benjamin Melzer says, the WerkStadt encourages people towards the DIY approach, thus leading them quietly towards resistance. For the Memory Station, alongside the residents of the district, author Pascal Bovée, artist Lenio Kaklea and sound artist Katharina Pelosi will explore the question of how people in the north of Essen deal with these changes and the individual life strategies and survival tactics they have developed in the process. The resulting surveys, audio interviews and conversations culminate in a performative audio installation. A writing workshop for young people supports them in dealing with the challenges and resentments that they encounter daily here in the city’s periphery.

Start: 18:00
Venue: WerkStadt, Viktoriastraße 5, 45327 Essen
In German language
Free admission

In cooperation with Urbane Künste Ruhr.