About the project “24/7”  

At the beginning of her tenure as director of Kunsthalle Osnabrück in 2014, curator Julia Draganović opened the institution for one week (26 May – 2 June) around the clock to artists and the public. The aim was to create an open space for encounters, participation, and exchange.

 Within this framework, I developed a participatory art project together with asylum seekers whom I was teaching in various German language courses (ESF-BAMF programmes at that time). The project was designed as an interactive performance that brought asylum seekers, visitors, and artists into direct conversation inside the Kunsthalle Osnabrück.

The project was accompanied by my colleague Heike Imbrich, social pedagogue in the ESF-BAMF programme, who also supported and partially documented the project photographically.

Choreography: 6 drawings, pencil and wax crayon on paper, each 20 × 30 cm

Asylum seekers in Osnabrück, often without work permits and living in basic accommodation on the outskirts of the city, were invited to spend time inside the Kunsthalle and engage in direct conversations with visitors for approximately one hour.

 Each participant wore a clearly visible name tag including first name, country of origin, legal status, and profession. The tags also included the invitation:  

 “If you would like to know more about my life here in Osnabrück, please talk to me.”

The participants of the performance first form a circle in the centre of the exhibition space of Kunsthalle Osnabrück, facing inward, and remain in this position for a while.

They then slowly turn outward in pairs. Afterwards, the participants move in pairs, step by step, in a radial formation out of the circle and take up their previously assigned positions within the large exhibition space of the Kunsthalle.

For some visitors to the Kunsthalle, the asylum seekers become something special, a kind of magnet. Once all participants have taken up their positions, they stand distributed throughout the exhibition space, each wearing a conspicuous green-labelled badge attached to their clothing. This arouses visitors’ curiosity, as they want to understand what the project is about.

During the rehearsal phases of the project, when only few visitors are present in the Kunsthalle, the asylum seekers patiently remain in their assigned positions. During the final performance on 6 June 2014 at 12:30 pm, all participants engage in conversations with interested visitors to the Kunsthalle for approximately one hour. They exchange experiences about their lives as refugees in Germany and in the city of Osnabrück.