Few things do more to bring people together than creating something together. In this project module, the Ubuntus participants are designing and building an inclusive Ubuntus kitchen, which can be assembled easily in a variety of settings, providing new opportunities for neighbours to come together and promoting cohesion.

The prototype of the barrier-free Ubuntus kitchen made by and for people with impairments, was sponsored by Aktion Mensch (2019). The further prototype development is currently sponsored by “Freiwilliges Engagement in Nachbarschaften (FEIN)” (Voluntary Engagement in Neighborhoods').

Neighbourhood initiatives, non-profit projects and all other interested individuals are warmly invited to get involved!

This film is in easy language and sign language. It will be translated into other languages.

 

Originally, this project module focused on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) and the photographic staging of it. Against the backdrop of the Corona/Covid-19 pandemic as well as other intensive, reality-changing events in 2020 (such as the racist murders in Hanau/Germany, or the murder on George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter Movement or the human rights abuses in Camp Moria/Lesvos) the focus of the project opened up to the now more visible intersections of different forms of discrimination. 

The project looked similarly - like a kaleidoscope - on the development of social inequalities during a global pandemic: In a way of contemporary witnessing, participants documented, shared and processed their different worlds of experiences in photographic exercises.

The project was sponsored by Aktion Mensch.

In this project module, program participants, with a focus on participatory urban design, developed new approaches to the pervasive barriers in public space. In this way, equal participation in the discussion of interdisciplinary strategies for a more barrier-sensitive urban society was promoted in greater depth: Collaboratively, participating children, youth and adults with and without disabilities/impairments, as well as with and without experiences of flight or trauma and individuals who are particularly vulnerable during Covid-19 (so-called at-risk groups), designed and built mobile, modular and accessible furniture. The resulting design objects now serve urban conversations in public spaces on different contemporary issues. They also promote the flexible, inclusive use of public spaces as soon as they are once again considered safe whereabouts and places to gather in the course of the current pandemic development. Through their own impulses and co-creation, the participants change the local urban society.

The project was sponsored by Aktion Mensch.

The idea for this project module was expressed at short notice and with serious interest by the Ubuntus participants themselves due to the acute humanitarian emergency in the refugee camp Kara Tepe (Lesbos/Greece). 

Since the program participants are highly concerned with the images from Kara Tepe/ Moria, the workshop format creates a contextual framework that allows them to delve deeper into their own questions about the topic as well as possible fields of action, and to reflect on their own political attitudes from the perspective of contemporary arts that deal with socially relevant issues of our time. 

The focus of the project module is that the participants with and without refugee experience as well as with and without impairments or disabilities deal with such humanitarian challenges and can become active or participate in shaping them. 

During the course of the project, the participants will work towards implementing a mutually developed idea for solidarity gifts and are sending them to Kara Tepe. If possible, it will be combined with further development of a smaller exchange project, so that the recipients can get in touch with the Ubuntus participants if they are interested. 

To be able to represent one's own positions on a complex topic like the global issue of refugee protection in connection with a humanitarian attitude in the mirror of contemporary arts - this is the goal of the project. 

This project is sponsored by Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk e.V. (German Children’s Charity). 

In the various project modules the Ubuntus participants connect in equal educational partnerships and learn something about themselves and the society they live in.

The Ubuntus education partnerships have four aims:

Diversity Education: Participants learn to see people as individuals and to recognise that diversity is the norm – irrespective of social, ethnic or other origin, gender, sexual orientation, religion or beliefs, age, physical or mental abilities/disabilities...

Engagement: Engaging with each other in a respectful, participatory and lively way fosters empathy and the ability to manage conflicts.

Empowerment: Participants are encouraged to engage independently with the contemporary arts and to explore how they can use this means of expression to participate in society.

Language: All participants improve their individual language skills.

If you are interested, have questions or ideas about the art education programme or the project modules, please contact us at info[at]ubuntus.de.