Passage in Life

“We are born, we live, we share, we are all passing by. We succeed each other. This is the law of nature. This is much more than a game…” A great majority of students of our course chose this quotation by Mababa Diouf. It has been written in the concept text that was send to us by Margalit and Adeline.

After having visited an exhibition of Hélio Oiticica at the Museum of Modern Art Frankfurt we tried sewing in a workshop. We started on pieces that were meant to be ritual clothing to be worn on special occasions in life. Then we saw the show of ancient African Nok ceramics with unusual and beautiful figures that were supposed to done for spiritual practise and the students wanted to do pottery as well.

So on 25^th of January we met at the pottery workshop in the Haus der Volksarbeit, very close to a house where African refugees found shelter. Talking about their life and their dangerous passage to Europe first, we thought about forming mascots or talismans as kind of guardian spirits for our personal passage of life.

Sarah for example did a series of human sculpture in different clay with a big pumping heart as a symbol for the bonding equality of all human beings: Love.

The photos of the ceramics will be included in our textile artwork that will be a combination of all individual webs forming a passage together, as we spend this year – a passage of time – together and get involved with each others stories, favourite things and books and songs.

Dorle Schmidt

UNESCO Art Course 
Anna-Schmidt-Schule Frankfurt