News
Jour Fixe – Art in Conflict
8. May 2024, 17.15 h CET
artasfoundation, Lindenbachstr. 21, Zurich & Zoom
How to Narrate War Through Photography?
Reading group and discussion with Meinrad Schade, photographer
How does war appear beyond the battle lines, within society? What might images of war look like beyond the sensational news of the day? With the aim of understanding how conflicts manifest in landscape and architecture, in people’s souls and in their actions, Meinrad Schade has been travelling along the borders of conflict for 20 years. At the next Jour Fixe – Art in Conflict, the photographer will not only share his material with us – for once, we will mainly receive photographs to prepare for the reading group – but also the questions that drive him in his work.
Meinrad Schade has been a freelance portrait photographer and photojournalist since 2002. In addition to his commercial work, he has been pursuing several long-term projects since 2003. For his project War Without War, Meinrad Schade has repeatedly visited different regions of the former Soviet Union as well as England and France. From 2013 to 2017 he regularly travelled to Israel and Palestine. In 2015 he published the book War Without War and in 2018 the book Unresolved.
For legal reasons we will send the material to all registered participants on 8. May at noon. We kindly ask you to review it in preperation and are looking forward to your participation!
The discussion will be held in English. The event will take place in the artasfoundation office as well as online on Zoom. To sign up for the Zoom link, please, e-mail us by 7. May. This event is part of a monthly series that is organised by the CAP, a joint initiative of artasfoundation and the ZHdK. If you wish to be regularly informed about the agenda each month, please, sign up for our Jour Fixe invitation list here.
Next date:
5. June 2024, 17.15 h CET – Reading Group
What Does Artistic Collaboration in Exile Require?
with Tamara Janashia on the artasfoundation project Tbilisi Crossroads
artasfoundation, Lindenbachstr. 21, Zurich & Zoom
Projects
Art Education – Inter-Culturally
In 2022 we
started a three-year exchange project for future art teachers. Each
year, three Swiss universities and one partner university in the South
Caucasus are sending students and lecturers to participate in the
project. In spring 2022, the exchange took place between Armenia and
Switzerland and in September 2022 and January 2023 between Georgia and
Switzerland and in February 2024 again between Armenia and Switzerland.
How is
art taught in public schools in the South Caucasus? What are the
educational goals of the curriculum there? And what do these look like
in different Swiss cantons? How do the – sometimes implicit – values and
orientations of the respective societies flow into school teaching?
What is the understanding of art in the different countries’ approaches
to teaching? The participants are able to explore such questions in
joint practical work.
More...
CAS Further Education course Arts and International Cooperation
CAS
Arts and International Cooperation brings
together professionals in arts practice, peace building activists,
project managers from international organisations. Through theoretical
concepts and practical exercises you will engage in joint discussions
and exchange with experienced lecturers. A central element of the course is a study
trip to actual art projects in fragile contexts.
More...
Teachers’ Training
Schools in the border
villages of Armenia affected by the war are facing severe teacher
shortages. Against this background, an exchange of ideas between artasfoundation
and the Armenian State Pedagogical University – the only institution in
Armenia responsible institution responsible for teacher training in the
country – has resulted in the offer of a futher education training for
practicing art teachers from peripheral regions of Armenia. It is the
first of its kind in the country. In the summer and fall of 2022, the
course was held for the first time with 37 art teachers from the border
regions. Due to the great demand, the project was continued in August and November 2023.
More...
Circular
From the current circular
As a part of our daily life in artasfoundation, we are continuously learning how to deal with the uncertainties in today’s world. This summer, we have run a number of different projects, including a new edition of the Teachers’ Training course in Armenia, the International Summer School for Socially Engaged Arts, and Impulse Days in Music Therapy. At the same time we were preparing for the third workshop of the project Art Education – inter-culturally in Armenia. However, at the time of writing this text, we have decided to postpone this workshop to the start of 2024. This decision has been made due to the escalation of the war around Nagorno-Karabakh and its impact on the whole of Armenia. The gravity of the events required us to slow down and listen attentively to the emotional capacities of our partners in the region. It is not the first and will not be the last time that war and conflicts affect our activities, but this is precisely why we believe that social transformation is site-specific and only possible when actions are contextualised and international organisations act and react in alignment with the ever-changing context, especially in regions affected by conflict.
In the work of artasfoundation we celebrate the strength that art introduces into in our communities, even into those experiencing severe losses. To this aim, we are in constant dialogue with collaborating artists and cultural workers. We sensitively design our social transformative art projects, experimenting with various art practices and forms as a vehicle towards a more equitable future where communities creatively lead their own transformation.
As we understand the challenges in the political, cultural and social contexts in which we operate, we also look at, and continually reflect on, our own internal structures, adapting according to the changes and learning we experience. After months of researching, building and rebuilding, experimenting and weaving together affinities, we are now able to open our kitchen to friends and colleagues to inform you that artasfoundation is transforming to become a geographically decentralised structure involving seven members from art, management and research backgrounds, who share the fundamental belief that the only way for all of us to live together is through the peaceful, long-term transformation of our societies.
Archive of circulars
1artasfoundation would like to underline that its use of names and titles particularly in regards to conflict regions should not be understood as implying any form of recognition or non-recognition by the foundation or as having any other political connotation whatsoever.