The ritual act of re-connecting broken material to create a new image, in the form of a unique mosaic, echos my personal aspiration to connect people through the act of collaboration and handwork.
Currently I am commissioned to facilitate a collaborative mosaic project for Möckernkiez in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Together with the residents of one apartment blog to we decorate the entrance areas with mosaic tiles made by the residents themselves.
In 2022 I initiated the Climate Change Community Mosaic Project in Beijing. First 15 people from Beijing came together to deliberate about Climate Change and then design symbols for a mosaic on the basis of their discussion points. During the month of March 2022 they crafted these mosaics with their friends and the wider public to not only use cognitive processes but also physical action to penetrate the topic of climate change further. In the end about 60 citizens of Beijing/China participated and it was installed at the German Embassy school and community centre in Beijing on April 21, 2022.
Dokumentation Deutsch (PDF) Documentation English (PDF)
During workshop for climate change community mosaic, Beijing, March 2022
Since 2014 I have conducted several other community mosaic projects in Turkey, Brazil and China. Some community mosaic projects I documented through videos. Please click on the photo to see more.
Project Beijing Moto 2021
About – project 116 – participants said:
Great project, great activity, great company, wonderful community art! Great Saturday! Thank you Gertrud.
Paloma Sanchez
Refugee Women Community Mosaic Mural, Turkey March 2015
Refugee Women Mosaic Workshop Turkey 2015
This movie received the “coup de coeur” prize of the ICCM (international Committee for the Conversation of Mosaics) in Barcelona 2017
It is also a great honour to have received the SAMA scholarship 2020 to learn from the impressive “community arts & empowerment” project in Watsonville/CA. I spent 4 weeks learning from them in September 2022 as an intern at Watsonville/California.
