WERK-STADT-SCHLOSS

2023 Urban savaging - animated film and UV painting with Sina Heffner and Bernd Schulz

06.03. to 17.03.2023

In 2023, WERK-STADT-SCHLOSS contributed to the discussions of the city center project "Art in Porschestraße" with its own question. In this context, Porschestraße was activated through an open cultural program. Over the course of the year, research was conducted into what the people of Wolfsburg want from their city center, how they feel about art and whether they think that art can be used to revitalize the city center and become an important design space for them. The aim is for people to be able to re-discover the city as a living space. To shake up this discussion a little, we posed the provocative counter-question: "What would happen if nobody came to Porschestraße anymore?". We artistically examined the urban space to see how it would change if it were not used. Areas in the public space around the Alvar Aalto Kulturhaus were designated to bring projections and graffiti invisible in daylight to life in the evening hours. At night, almost without us noticing, the city center went wild for a weekend.

2022 Now more than ever! - Animation with Lucia Schmidt and Sandra Reyes

Joy as a form of resistance

A project on joy in these times? "Now more than ever!" was the opinion of the creative workshops in the M2K of the city of Wolfsburg and so they invited 28 students* and trainees to the traditional art workshop WERKSTADT-SCHLOSS with the subtitle "Joy as a form of resistance" in the Alvar-Aalto-Kulturhaus. Within two weeks in May, countless moving images were created under the guidance of animation artists Sandra Reyes (Weimar) and Lucia Schmidt (Regensburg). The young

participants were extremely productive.

Man is a social being. Experiencing connection, joy and shared emotions creates community and keeps us from numbness. Therefore, the participants playfully sought joy with the possibilities of animation. How to express aliveness in this art form? The term itself orients. To animate means to animate, to animate, to stimulate. So they produced a variety of crazy image constructions and associative, playful films.

Are we going to laugh? That would be nice. Will we be stimulated? Surely! Do we dare to enjoy it? I hope so! Because without joy and pleasure, it's hard to look ahead. So courage to enjoy!

2021 Everything is different! - Sculpture with Rainer Scheer

2021 Everything Different - Sculpture with Rainer Scheer

Changes are a reliable part of our lives.

This includes both the biological side of growing, maturing and aging, as well as the inner processes of changing what we are used to or breaking out of old patterns. However, changes also affect us through external circumstances. These are beyond our control, and yet each of us must respond to them individually or collectively.

The time of the Corona pandemic confronts us all with changes we had to learn to deal with internally and externally and continue to do so - a good occasion to explore the light and dark sides of this fundamentally human experience.

Under the direction of sculptor Rainer Scheer and art educator Birgit Fabian, the 13 participants searched for answers to the theme "Everything is different" and initially found them in sketches and clay objects. Then they chiseled their ideas into stone.

2020 Where am I? - Performance with Ilka Theurich and Marlo Zirr

Give the Internet an analog form

Two methods were available: the means of performance and the development of objects in which the Internet and the answer to the question "Where am I" should become visible.

With the accessibility of any information we develop the feeling of absolute transparency. However: one cannot see the forest for the trees. How do we experience this world? Where do we locate ourselves? Where do we find ourselves? Where are the real and virtual spaces that give us orientation these days? And how do we evaluate them?

A look at the universe helps us think outside the box. Thus, the creative workshops in M2K broke new ground by visiting the planetarium and utilizing the competencies and impulses of other institutions.

These were the times when Corona started the biggest digitization push of all time for Germany. Performance artist Ilka Theurich also addressed this during the continuation of the project.

2019 Really true? - Augmented Art with Fanny Kranz and Sanne Pawelczyk

Really true? - Art in mixed reality

Interactive art in art education project March 11 - 22, 2019

What is actually real? This question constantly arises in our world, which is becoming increasingly complex. Two dimensions in particular often lead to generational conflict: that of the "real/analog" and the "virtual/digital" world. A strong dividing line can be observed here. What feels like reality to some seems less reliable, sometimes even threatening, to others.
During the two project weeks of WERK-STADT-SCHLOSS, schoolchildren and trainees explored their understanding of reality in the citizens' workshop at Wolfsburg Castle. How do they experience the different levels? What of this can flow into a picture project, which is created from both analog and digital aspects.

AUGMENTED ART was the keyword. The creative approach in the analog field should be the drawing, in the digital field the creation of visualizations took place. The participants produced drawings that can be digitally changed and experienced through the use of an APP and thus dissolve the layers, or like to raise the question of authenticity.

The documentation of the project "Really true?"

2018 Freak out! - Sound objects with Michael Vierling

"Freak out! - or, how to grow beyond yourself"

Interactive art in the art education project

Growing beyond themselves with creativity - participants in this year's WERK-STADT-SCHLOSS art project embarked on a highly creative process.

What can you dare to do? What happens when you break with habits? Creativity makes us flexible and helps us to deal constructively with rapid change and the many changes in our lives.

During the two project weeks, pupils from the Oskar-Kämmer-Schule and trainees from Neuland Wohnungsbaugesellschaft mbH, Schnellecke Logistics, the Volkswagen Academy, the city of Wolfsburg and the RegionalVerbund für Ausbildung explored their willingness to break out of their habits of thinking and experiencing. They were supported by Michael Vierling, a media artist from Karlsruhe. He shared his technical expertise to develop interactive objects with the project participants. By soldering, gluing, connecting and programming, they produced objects that at first glance appear garish or absurd, but are at the same time reserved and very quiet and then are suddenly experienced as loud and shrill and encourage the viewer, or rather the user, to do something unusual.

Freak out!

The results of the two project weeks were exhibited from April 25 to May 4, 2018 in the Bürgerhalle in Rathaus A.

Video "Freak out! Or how to grow beyond yourself" (opens in a new window)

WERK-STADT-SCHLOSS is supported by Neuland Wohnungsgesellschaft mbH, Schnellecke Logistics and IG Metall Wolfsburg.

2017 What Really Matters - Tape Art with Eric Kostjuk and Daniel Mangraviti

"What really matters" - Tape Art

Large format pictures are created from colored adhesive tapes

Over the past 25 years, some 1,000 participants have already come into contact with contemporary art themes and processes. Released from their schools and training companies, they experienced the interplay of artistic creation and the content-related examination of a current topic.

From March 6 to 17, 2017, the creative workshops at the Kulturwerk once again invited apprentices and students from Wolfsburg to the WERK-STADT-SCHLOSS project at the Bürgerwerkstatt in Wolfsburg Castle.

For two weeks, trainees from Neuland Wohnungsgesellschaft, Volkswagen AG, Schnellecke Logistics, the City of Wolfsburg, the Regional Network for Training, as well as students from the Oskar-Kämmer-Schule and participants in the FSJ-Kultur of the City of Wolfsburg dealt with the topic "What really counts".

26.04. to 08.05.2017 in the civic hall of the town hall A

This year, under the direction of Berlin artists Erik Kostjuk and Daniel Mangraviti, the theme was translated into TapeArt artworks. The novel method of sticking and arranging tape - a development from street art - enabled the participants to approach the work in an unbiased way. Successful and spontaneous designs quickly emerged. The complex picture creations with the different tape widths and colors show a high degree of creativity.

In terms of content, the focus in both weeks was on the question of a responsible and meaningful lifestyle. The broad topic offered the participants the opportunity to explore a variety of perspectives. The result was nine large-format works of art in which the creative minds focused on topics as diverse as love, self-realization, knowledge, community, friendliness and consumption. The works offer a revealing insight into the life plans, hopes and expectations of the young Wolfsburg generation.

The results of the two project weeks were exhibited by the and are summarized in a catalog.

"WERK-STADT-SCHLOSS" is supported by Neuland Wohnungsgesellschaft mbH, Schnellecke Logistics and IG Metall Wolfsburg.

2016 Naturally City - Painting with Susanne Wurlitzer

Trainees design picturesque city views

"Natural city"

Trainees design picturesque city viewsFor the 24th time, the popular art education project took place from March 7 to 18, 2016 , in the Citizens' Workshop of Wolfsburg Castle, where Wolfsburg trainees and young people once again had the opportunity to immerse themselves in an intensive art experience.

WERK-STADT-SCHLOSS this year was all about sustainability and Young Leipzig Painting. For two weeks, trainees from Volkswagen, IG-Metall, Neuland Wohnungsgesellschaft mbH, Schnellecke Logistics, the City of Wolfsburg and graduates of the FSJ Kultur as well as 14 students from the Oskar Kämmer School dealt with the questions of how sustainability and the city fit together or what is a natural city and what makes it so. The theme was artistically implemented under the guidance of the Leipzig artist Susanne Wurlitzer and the art teacher Sandy Auerbach.

The result was more than 30 self-made 60 x 80 cm canvases, filled with the students' and trainees' own ideas and conceptions on the theme of "Natural City".

The presentation of the project and the resulting works were on display in an exhibition in the Bürgerhalle, Rathaus A, from June 1 to 14, 2016.

2015 Happiness - animation art with Falk Schuster

Animation films on the theme of happiness

At the art education project at Wolfsburg Castle from March 9 to 20, 2015, young people became filmmakers of animation art.

Watch the film here on Youtube (opens in a new window)

2014 Networks - Graffi ti with Sebastian Roese

Art education project at Wolfsburg Castle, Citizens' Workshop

For the 22nd time, the doors of the castle opened to artists, trainees, and students from May 5 to 16, 2014.

In the first week of the WERK-STADT-SCHLOSS art education project organized by the creative workshops at the Kulturwerk, 15 students from the Oskar-Kämmer School worked enthusiastically on the topic of "networks" in the citizens' workshop at Wolfsburg Castle. They discussed which societal, social and family networks surround us, but also fishing nets and spider webs were to appear more frequently in the course of the week.