KHALAT - A Collage That Mirrors Us
The Khalat workshop series offered through C/O Berlin Perspectives offers girls from the Gemeinschaftsunterkunft Straßburger Straße shelter regular opportunities for input and development. Artistic processes spark conversations and thus it is not the creative outcome but rather the individual’s development and reflection that are supported in this series of encounters. This workshop series creates a safe space outside the shelter, where participants can express their personal wishes and ideas about the topics that are important to them. KHALAT – A Collage That Mirrors Us is the theme that extends over the sessions and succeeds the Masquerade workshop series. Here, too, we consider how we see ourselves and how others see us. How do we construct our self-image and is it possible to separate this into our disparate roles? Is it a challenge to take apart a picture of ourselves and reassemble it as a collage?
Who are our role models—and what role do we slip into in front of a camera? Can striking a pose make you stronger? What do we want to convey?
The participants’ joy and playfulness in front of and behind the camera sparked a discussion on images and representations of influencers on Instagram. With an introduction to the collages of Hannah Höch and contemporary artists, it was possible to draw links between the political dimension of Dada by examining a female artist and the contemporary use of selfies and self-presentations. A further discussion focused on individual statements and forms of representation as well as how women are depicted in images, examined by looking at works by fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh.
Constanze Flamme
studied visual communication at FH Potsdam and photography at Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. She has received support from the Akademie der Künste, Berlin and VG Bildkunst, Bonn.
Katja Schütt
is a fine artist and studied art at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, experimental photography at Kunsthochschule Kassel, and sculpture at Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee.