Sulzbach/Saar in the Saarland is a small town near Saarbrücken, founded on salt works and dating back to the Middle Ages. After the state of Hesse, this is our second stop for the WE ARE OCEAN Blueprints series in the southern part of Germany. Here, the sea is more of a place of longing, far away from this landlocked region. Yet the local waters and the rivers flowing through Germany connect Sulzbach to the sea.
To bring this connection to life through art and science, we were able to commission the renowned artist Insa Winkler, who has been dedicated to environmental issues for several decades. In Sulzbach, she will use the fascinating theme of the message in a bottle to connect the schoolchildren of the Staatliche Förderschule Sprache with the sea, supported by the local geographer and limnologist Steffen Potel from BUND Saarland and the Coastal and Marine Geographer Kim Nierobisch: A message-in-a-bottle initiative that does not explain freshwater fish, but let’s them tell their own stories.
Artist: Dr. Insa Winkler
Scientists: Steffen Potel (Limnologist), Kim Nierobisch (Coastal and Marine Geographer)
Curators: Dr. Julia Moritz & Anne-Marie Melster
School: Staatliche Förderschule Sprache, Sulzbach/Saar
Teacher: Annika Ahrt
Dates:
02-04 November 2026: Workshop
05 November 2026: ab 9 am Festive final event at the Salzbrunnenhaus Sulzbach/Saar
Co-host: Saarland Ministry for the Environment, Climate, Mobility, Agriculture and Consumer Protection
In a three-day workshop, pupils between 9 and 15 years will design pages of a book as small, independent chapters: watercolours, drawings, short texts and recorded voices will form a journey in which fish migrate from the stream to the sea – and from the sea back to the familiar landscape, as well as speak about all the living beings populating the water streams and giving them a voice. The result is a multifaceted picture of biodiversity, of what is vulnerable, and of what needs protection.
In the end, a shared sentence is found – as brief as an exclamation mark, as open as an invitation. And how will tehy work around the topic of the “Message in the Bottle”? We will keep you posted!
We want to invite you all to join us on the 5th of November 2026 at the Salzbrunnenhaus Sulzbach/Saar for the public presentation of the project!
The event will be officially opened by Christine Streichert-Clivot (Minister for Education). This will be followed by a fishbowl discussion with the students of the Staatliche Förderschule Sprache Sulzbach/Saar, the mayor of Sulzbach/Saar Michael Adam, the artist Insa Winkler, the marine biologist and environmental activist Kim Nierobisch, limnologist Steffen Potel and our director Anne-Marie Melster. The students will proudly present their art works.
Thursday, 5th of November 2026, 9am.
Salzbrunnenhaus Sulzbach/Saar
Auf der Schmelz, 66280 Sulzbach
Thanks a lot to our funding partners, without whom this project would not have been possible:
Saarland Ministry for the Environment, Climate, Mobility, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (also the co-presenter of the project)
Herzenssache e.V.
Saartoto
Friends of the Sulzbach/Saar Special School for Children with Language Difficulties via Sparda Bank Südwest
Project Tags
To make a donation please make a bank transfer to:
ARTPORT_making waves e.V.
TridosBank Deutschland
IBAN: DE59 5003 1000 1039 8300 07
BIC: TRODDEF1
Reference: “donation for WE ARE OCEAN“
If you are a resident in Germany, please email us your name and address and we will send you a donation receipt
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