COLLECTIVE MEMORIES / Cooperation Augsburg (Germany) – Douala / Yaoundé (Cameroon)
Paul-Henri S. Assako Assako and Markus Schlee perceived the title COLLECTIVE MEMORIES as an impulse and general theme. The students were asked by the two teachers to align their current artistic work with this topic and to reflect on it again and again in this context. In Cameroon, a concentrated discussion took place in a workshop specially designed for this purpose. Initially, theoretical concepts were developed and then realized step by step. In a joint zoom session, some language-savvy students from Cameroon presented their own work and that of their fellow students and, in response to queries from Germany, explained them in detail with regard to content, design and material. Most of the German students had previously provided materials in files that illustrated the respective concept and the current status of the work.
The German project participants found the strongly conceptual orientation of the works from Cameroon particularly interesting and they were enthusiastic about the pronounced creative and technical skills that manifested themselves there. This resulted in a first exchange, which is now being continued directly between the participants via digital media (WhatsApp, e-mail). The EVC project should not come to an end here, but rather be the starting signal for direct intercultural communication.
All in all, the aim of the participants in the EVC project is to help express the differences between the COLLECTIVE MEMORIES in Cameroon and Germany in the creation of images. The localization of the individual, his roots, his memories, his image imprints and his reflective dealings with them. The two groups (unfortunately) do not work simultaneously, since the project in Cameroon takes place as a separate workshop over 3 weeks (Link to the project in Cameroon). In Germany, however, individual students from different seminars work on it weekly in lessons. Nevertheless, a first step towards a perhaps long-term cooperation (?) could be taken.
