WE ARE OCEAN_Blaupause Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein was the third stop on the current WE ARE OCEAN_Blaupausen project. With the international experience gained by WE ARE OCEAN, we continued our “Blaupausen” tour in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg, this time we went to the coast, the Baltic Sea.

As an important German coastal city and international marine research center, Kiel, the capital of the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, is an indispensable stop on our current Blaupausen project. Many people here know the sea more than well. But water is also inside of us, in our bodies, bottles, and thoughts. The Goethe Gemeinschaftsschule Kiel entrusted us with 40 of their students plus their teachers. To make this connection artistically and scientifically tangible, we invited Finnish artist Riikka Tauriainen (who came accompanied by the marine scientist Dr. Meike Vogt) to collaborate with the renowned GEOMAR research center and the University of Kiel together with their ocean:lab of the Kieler Forschungswerkstatt.

The students, together with the artist, the marine scientist and the curators Julia Moritz and Anne-Marie Melster, created an active project which included plankton fishing and examining their samples under special microscopes, to then from that input create photographs, paintings, lino prints, drawings, and sculptures. This was accompanied by field trips to the local water currents and the sea. As a big final, they all together curated the artworks in the sp ce / Muthesius, a centrally located exhibition space by the Muthesius Art Academy in Kiel. The final day was dedicated to installing the space, evaluating their work and the project. It concluded with the public and very lively WE ARE OCEAN Fishbowl Discussion where the students had the space and the time to talk about their learning process, the project, their questions and doubts, together with the team, the teachers, local stakeholders and the audience. The space was packed, the parents and grandparents, the teachers blown away by the results of the project and the enthusiasm of the young students. The feedback from all sides was very positive, young people empowered and we on behalf of ARTPORT as well. Thank you, Kiel!

If you want to read more about the project from the perspective of the University of Kiel, please go here.

At the public event on the 26th of June at sp ce / Muthesius we celebrated the students and their amazing work.
The participating students were our protagonists! With them on stage were:

Jana Körth, Marine Conservation Officer of the City of Kiel
Friederike Balzereit, Science Communications + Public Relations Director at University of Kiel, Kiel Marine Science
Riikka Taurianen, Artist and researcher, Zurich
Meike Vogt, ETH Zürich, Climate scientist and ocean ecologist
Julia Moritz, Curator
Anne-Marie Melster, Director ARTPORT_making waves (moderator)

We give thanks to the BINGO! Umweltlotterie and their participants for the generous funding for this project. You are one of the most democratic funding supporters for our environmental education projects!

And we express our gratitude to the okeanos FOUNDATION FOR THE SEA and their initiative Waves of Action for their trust.

Photos by Charlotte Köhncke for WE ARE OCEAN_Blaupause Schleswig-Holstein

Thanks also to all our partners in Kiel:

sp ce / Muthesius

Kiel Marine Science

ozean:labor

Muthesius Kunsthochschule

Goethe Gemeinschaftsschule Kiel

Kieler forschungs:werkstatt

Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel

Project Tags

2025, Blaupausen, Europe, Ocean Decade, Ocean Literacy, WeareOcean, Workshop

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WE ARE OCEAN_Blaupause Schleswig-Holstein

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