About
The youth art exhibition ‘Ex Oriente Polylux’ (‘From the East Multiple Light’) shows reflections on the ambivalence of fire as a central motif of the Biennale - its destructive power and its capacity for transformation and renewal. Young people were invited to make art and show their perspectives during the exhibition period, thus giving rise to discourses on global fragility: on changes, movements, destruction and their own existence within it.
In the three rooms, a workshop, a Polylux room and an exhibition hall provided the opportunity for interactive reflection and productive creation.
Together with the Zwischenwelten collective, an open call invited young people to openly address questions about their personal East and submit ideas and artistic expressions. The submitted photographs have become part of the exhibition - as have works by pupils that were created from a mediation box. An entire hall was dedicated to these positions.
Curators
Amt für Wunschentwicklung is a collective of designers who research, test and practice new modes of communication. Enter cooperation with schools and institutions of art and culture - as a mobile and digital task force for research-based perception and tangible work, experimental and artistic - in the city and in the country. Everyone should be empowered to use creative means and tools to shape desires and redesign the world.
Christin Deringer is a game and learning designer and develops methods and concepts with a playful approach. Their motive: "Sometimes I think one makes it too easy for oneself, but mostly I think one makes it more complicated than it is." Together with Nikos Probst and Sebastian Hennig they develop the youth exhibition for Pochen. Nikos is a visual artist and art educator. The starting point of his artistic and educational work is the examination of everyday observations, techniques and technologies. Objects, images and discourses develop from experiments and approaches of artistic research. Sebastian Hennig is also a game and learning designer and accompanies moments, workshops, and processes with impulses from all areas of play, design, and mediation.
Mediation Box
The box enables a thematic exploration of the concepts of balance, movement and fragility. It contains artistic exercises for perception, production and reflection and is designed for groups in a class set to be used in two 90-minute units (alternatively, it can also be used as an introduction or for a project day). The box was distributed to teachers and mediators in the city of Chemnitz.
The aim is to capture the perspectives of young people and present them in the youth exhibition for the 2024 Biennale. The box offers great potential for the active participation of young people in urban society.
Breaking Loops - art camp together with the Arthur e.V.
The one-week workshop intensified the exchange with young people from Chemnitz and the surrounding area and marked the beginning of the realisation of light-space modulators and their reflection on different levels. The results and processes are shown in the exhibition and can be experienced and tried out in a workshop scenario.
KOSMOS 2024
Amt für Wunschentwicklung was represented at the KOSMOS Festival with a stand with forms on personal happiness and the construction of kaleidoscopes.
Multitalent Workshop
Mediation understands versatile approaches to knowledge. Knowledge can also be structured on several levels. At the start of the exhibition, a workshop with around 60 schoolchildren from Döbeln took place in the finished exhibition rooms. Four artists and curators focussed on new mediation strategies. The large group was divided into four smaller ones.
Theresa Lippold (artist) organised an interactive tour of the Biennale. This was followed by reflection in Room 1 with the help of the Polyluxe. Christian Nebel (artist) gave a workshop on cyanotypes.
In the project room of the youth art exhibition, there was a second practical workshop: ‘I as a designer of my environment’. The young people built light-space modulators and staged small atmospheres in film snippets. The workshop was led by Christin Deringer (game and learning designer).
In room 3, which was designed as an exhibition space and chill zone, there were snacks and discussions with Sebastian Hennig (game and learning designer). Based on the principle of listening, questions and impulses from the exhibitions were put in relation to the realities of the participants' own lives.
