“The order of the day is solidarity with Ukraine. Our empathetic support is the least we can and must do to counter the ruthless attack by the Russian state apparatus on the Ukrainian people,” explains Michael M. Roth, founder of Ukraine Support Karlsruhe. This is an aid network with almost 1,000 people that supports refugees from Ukraine.
From now on, a website will bundle the information and offers of help and this will become an important further communication tool to help the refugees from the Ukraine in and around Karlsruhe. In particular, concrete aid projects are to be supported with donations in monthly rotation. On the occasion of the official launch of the website https://uskanet.de, it was presented at a digital press event on Thursday, April 7, 2022.
In addition, the first aid project “ESCAPE! – Escape as a creative challenge”. This is a crossover project of literature, art, performance and music, with a focus on spontaneous escape from repression, violence, war and annihilation. Fleeing for the sake of mere survival, leaving everything behind: origin and homeland, relatives, loved ones, all kinds of possessions. Specifically, the donations are intended to support cultural workers who have fled in order to give them job prospects in Karlsruhe.
The project is managed by the artist Markus Nieden, who, as a full-time visual artist (Karlsruhe Art Academy) and qualified art and theater teacher (Theaterwerkstatt Heidelberg), regularly organizes and directs international project formats. Nieden has implemented numerous cultural projects with Ukraine in recent years, including a series of projects initiated in 2019 in Kyiv, Ukraine and Kraków, Poland, which are intended to promote Western and Eastern European dialogue. Stories of emigrants were told under the project titles “Art from Suitcases”, “Arts On The Run” and “Hotel Exil”. This series is now to be followed by “ESCAPE! – Escape as a creative challenge” to be continued and funded again.
“Together with the refugees, we are looking for answers to the question of how migration is experienced in the middle of Europe, which is currently being increasingly triggered by the Ukraine war? If you can only take the bare essentials with you: What do you have left? What gives you inner strength? What awaits you on the horizon of your new existence, your new home? Which old identity are you leaving behind, which new one are you adopting?” Markus Nieden sums up the list of questions from “ESCAPE!”.
The multimedia project, which interacts between film and various arts, will encourage refugees of all kinds to express their fears, hopes, losses and gains directly at the hotspots of their flight: to document their personal story in interviews, then to write it down in professionally guided creative group work , audio-visually, scenically and theatrically, to share with others in the same fate: in publicly organized readings, interviews, performances and expos in the cultural centres, stages and clubs involved in the project.
“We will use the donations to support Ukrainian cultural workers, especially those from the fields of film, theater and fine arts, who are involved in “ESCAPE!”. The donations thus supplement personnel costs in order to give the cultural workers a job perspective abroad,” explains Dr. Oliver Langewitz, Managing Director of the non-profit association Filmboard Karlsruhe e. V., through which the project is coordinated.
Donations can be made to the Filmboard Karlsruhe e. v.:
Keyword “USKA donation for refugee cultural workers”
IBAN DE87 6605 0101 0108 0639 75
BIC KARSDE66XXX
Sparkasse Karlsruhe
Or via Paypal via the link: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/FilmboardKarlsruhe
The Film Board Karlsruhe e. V. is recognized as a non-profit organization and can issue donation receipts. Donations up to an amount of EUR 200.00 can be claimed for tax purposes upon presentation of the account statement without such a donation receipt.
Editor: Oliver Langewitz
Date: Apr/7/2022
English version: Michael M. Roth (using translate.google.com)
