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Group photo of the New Patrons of Züsedom with artist Jakub Szczęsny and mediator Holger Friese

WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN 2020 – AND WHAT WE LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2021

Clandestine - that's what we call something that takes place in silence, in secret, in a familiar circle. In 2020, the projects of the New Patrons continued clandestinely – and quite cheerfully – despite and because of the special challenges of the year.

Long before the artistic projects commissioned by citizens become public with a big whoop and a tare, they mature in dialogue, experience twists and surprises in the conversation between commissioning groups, artists, and take one step back and two steps forward. That was also the case in 2020. During on-site meetings outside, in online conferences, at the digital studio visit.

The New Patrons received a lot of support last year. In addition to the Federal Cultural Foundation, also the municipal administrations and individuals from numerous other institutions and offices have given the projects a tailwind, paved the way for the future and attested to their support. The concerns of the commissioning groups were never ignored, cultural offices and committees, city 1councillors and regional developers took their time for them. They can see: what is happening within the projects touches on fundamental aspects of community, care and social inclusion in the local and regional environment.

And so 2020 has been a year of new commissions, artistic drafts, community meetings and much trusting communication – on balance, a year of visions that are beginning to take practical shape. After a short breather at the turn of the year, the work now continues. Artists are working on drafts. Mediators and commissioning groups sit down with structural engineers and architects, talk to administrations and committees, draw plans, write applications for subsidies and building permits and tell the media about the projects. Not only to further advance the processes at the current sites of action, but also to anchor the New Patrons model in Germany with a long-term structure beyond the pilot phase.

Citizen-commissioned art is thriving, continuing to grow and entering the public sphere. What initially developed in a clandestine and protected manner is now getting hands and feet, showing its face and letting its voice be heard. Look forward to seeing it develop together with us!

Eleven commissions in the making
In Züsedom (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania), Mönchengladbach-Wickrath (North Rhine-Westphalia) and Waldeck-Frankenberg (Hesse), New Patrons groups signed their commissions for artistic productions last year. Deciding on a commission's wording is the moment when a group goes public with its concern. Currently, eleven groups of citizens are working together with the mediators on the realization of their commission – from finding the right artist and discussing ideas and drafts to concrete questions of implementation. In other locations, groups are also in the commissioning process to become public this year. See all ongoing projects…

Artists on board
They are currently working on their project proposals: Artistic drafts by Ruth Buchanan, ConstructLab and Rimini Protokoll, Martin Kaltwasser, Daniel Knorr, Antje Majewski, Laure Prouvost and Jakub Szczęsny are being commissioned by the citizens' groups. In doing so, they do not simply carry out the assignments or apply for individual projects. They are invited as active partners to understand the background from which a project emerges. They interpret the commission, follow up, research and develop ideas for a new work. Artist research is underway in other commissioning groups this year. The contributors to the projects in Germany are in good company: Artists from international projects…

First project drafts published
With Ruth Buchanan's draft, the New Patrons of Mönchengladbach are literally building bridges for the city. The draft envisages sculptural interventions in a garden plot that provide new access to the site. What emerges is intended to benefit the whole urban community, which finds numerous public educational and cultural institutions in the center but few connections between them and few places to hang out together. Rimini Protokoll and ConstructLab have developed a festival idea for the New Patrons of Steinhöfel, which is intended to bring all twelve villages of the community into dialogue with each other about growing old well in the countryside. For the "Steinhöfler Festspiele" active stage elements in each village and a common festival center are to provide for the exchange. The final festival can become the prelude to further activities in the municipality.

Comission complete
Commissioned by the Iraqi Kurd Sartep Namiq, a comic book has been in the making since 2016 and went to press at the end of the last year. It will be released by Egmont Comic Collection this March. It was commissioned from comic artist Felix Mertikat in collaboration with cyberpunk legend Bruce Sterling and many other contributors. The project began four years ago in the Tempelhof refugee shelter, with the aim of creating an encouraging story without words about living well together. The first copies go to non-profit organizations, refugee organizations, shelters, libraries, schools and educational institutions. The comic will then also be available in bookstores from March on. Read more…

Mediators actively on the road
Some have been involved for a long time, others joined the team in 2020: The mediators of the German New Patrons Society accompany the citizens' groups in their projects. Whenever a civic initiative wants to change a village, build a monument or realize an idea, the conversation begins with the mediator on site. They are scouts, advisors and negotiators. They avoid quick answers and do not have a ready-made construction plan in their luggage. Their specialty is the art of listening. Who are the mediators of the New Patrons?

New series within our Public Dialoge: Commissioned by – Art in Relation
In 2020, we discussed live and online within Whatever you Want! at Grüner Salon of the Volksbühne Berlin and on various other digital and real stages. This year, the new series Commissioned by – Art in Relation illuminates the specifics of an art on a civic mission from the perspectives of art history, sociology, anthropology, architecture and urban development, economics, art mediation, and conflict mediation. Essays, statements, proposals for action and practical formats such as seminars and workshops are presented on a monthly basis. Contributions by arch+, Karin Harrasser, Silke Helfrich/Commons Institute, Shannon Jackson, Judith Laister, Isabelle Stengers, Nora Sternfeld and international actors of the New Patrons, among others, will be available on our website as a growing archive as well as published with different media and cooperation partners. See Public Dialogue...

Press review
The patrons groups had a number of visits from press and media last year. Television and radio reports were broadcast by ZDF, Deutsche Welle, Deutschlandfunk and various stations of RBB, among others. Comprehensive articles appeared in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, on Zeit online and in taz. Reports in the Rheinische Post, Berliner Zeitung and MOZ, to name just a few, accompanied the activities in the regions. The yearbook of the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft and the magazine of the German Federal Cultural Foundation helped to raise awareness of the New Patrons model in Germany.

And then there was...
Since 2018, we have offered the seminar Mediation within the New Patrons model at the Institute for Art in Context at the Berlin University of the Arts. There have also been seminars and workshops at the Bauhaus University Weimar, the HfbK Dresden and other institutions, some of which will continue this year.

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Marl dances: For over two weeks, citizens of Marl had the opportunity to approach the choreography of "In C" based on the composition by Terry Riley in workshops with tutors from the company Sasha Waltz & Guests. Interested audience members were able to see the first results in an open rehearsal before the whole of Marl is invited to dance in September.

Photos: Florian Wagner

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Mariana Castillo Deball will develop a work for Friedland. The starting point will be the hiking trails and the treasures of the villages that the clients of Friedland have already collected. The first visits and walks have already taken place.

The artist explores ideologically constructed conditions under which artefacts appear in today's culture. To do this, she gathers information from various disciplines such as archaeology and science. Through research and collaboration, she creates works that emerge from the collision and recombination of these different languages.

Mariana Castillo Deball lives and works in Berlin and Mexico City. Her work has been shown at MUAC Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (Mexico City, 2021), Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen (Siegen, 2021), Modern Art…

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With Jakub Szczęsny, the people of Züsedom developed a bench which, in bright signal orange, places unmissable meeting points in the village landscape, can be used by every age group and, in its design, also offers the younger generation an opportunity to meet. The Züsedom bench. 

On 22 and 23 July, four charity auctions will be held at Broellin Castle to finance the new village benches in Züsedom.
More than 150 objects from the former Erich Kühl secondary school and the stock of the Züsedom countrywomen will be put up for auction.
Bid for a piece of history and support the production of our Züsedom commission!

Visit the auction website here: auktion.neueauftraggeber.de

Auction 1 : Friday 22 July 2022 15:30:00 - DDR teaching aids (focus on technology & audio)
Auction 2 : Friday 22…

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From 14 to 29 May, the new patrons of Steinhöfel told stories, designed, planned and built. Together with Constructlab, the Kistenflitzer was created - a mobile meeting point that is now available to the twelve villages of the community as a mobile cinema, rolling cocktail bar, church on wheels and much more.

A project within the framework of pilot funding by the Federal Cultural Foundation. The realisation is supported by the Fonds Soziokultur, the Fondation de France and the Brandenburgischer Kunstverein Potsdam.

Photo: Victoria Tomaschko

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The question of how technological developments influence our everyday and community life has occupied Simon Denny (*1982, Auckland, New Zealand) for many years. For the New Patrons of Beeskow, he is designing a sculpture series that makes information accessible and visible in the public space and at the same time promotes the community of citizens in this very space and beyond. 

Themes of personal identity and integrity are addressed, as are social debates about data protection and the use of human experience as a raw material.

Photo: Simon Denny visiting Beeskow Photo: Victoria Tomaschko

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It took a few years - but in March, the first project of the New Patrons on the African continent was inaugurated in Cameroon! It all started in 2014, together with the Goethe-Institut Cameroon. The Baka pygmy community in the country's southern rainforest had declared their urgent desire to deal with the fundamental changes in their culture and way of life, and they took the initiative and commissioned a cultural project, which mediator Germain Loumpet has been accompanying and mediating with great patience and passion ever since.

More info on the project can be found here, among other places: www.goethe.de/ins/cm/de/ueb/prn/lbaka.html

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Thursday, 18.11.2021, 2–5pm (in German)

An online event for planners and decisionmakers at the municipal and state levels and everyone interested in civic participation and decision-making processes.

We want to exchange ideas with you about how the New Patrons model offers unconventional insights into community processes and guidance on how to address even complex issues without intimidating would-be local activists. We throw open the door to our workshop and look forward to learning about your perspectives on and suggestions for what we do. We hope to launch a dialogue on how we can engage people in new conversations and on the key role that culture and art play for an innovative practice grappling with societal concerns.

What?
We introduce you to a unique approach to civic…

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Saturday, 4.9.2021, beginning: 2 pm

Presentation of the artistic concept to the public with welcome addresses from Dr. Reinhard Kubat, District Administrator of Waldeck-Frankenberg and Ljubica Nikolic, University of Göttingen.

Meeting place: Dorfgemeinschaftshaus (Village community center), Torweg 8, 35110 Ellershausen, coordinates: 51°04'46.9"N 8°53'34.9"E

The unusual art project commissioned by the Waldeck-Frankenberg Water Initiative makes visible the threat to water as a resource and commits the people of the region in a movement to protect water as the source of all life.

The citizen-commissioners and the artists will present their initiative to the public together. In a subsequent performance, exemplary first marks will be set, whose signal effect gives expression to the fleeting…

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The Gesellschaft der Neuen Auftraggeber has won the Zukunftspreis KULTURGESTALTEN award in the “initiative and network projects” category. The award, which honors forward-thinking cultural policy initiatives and is sponsored by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, was presented yesterday.

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We kick off Ruth Buchanan's work A garden with bridges (spine, stomach, throat, ear) for the New Patrons of Moenchengladbach with a three-part workshop series starting in June 2021. In collaborative formats, Ruth Buchanan will introduce the content of the commission and the center points of the patrons group. Topics such as work and working life, health and movement, experience of self and other come up in the workshops and enable a temporary coming together of different groups and people on the Abteiberg in Moenchengladbach.

The events take place as a cooperation of the Kunststiftung im Museum Abteiberg with the Arbeitslosenzentrum Moenchengladbach e.V. and the Stiftisches Humanistisches Gymnasium.

WORKSHOPS

No such things as weeds: Care, growth, regeneration.

SATURDAY, 26.6.2021, 10…

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