1 December 2016

Unsere Geschichten. Our Stories – Rewrite the Future
Opening discussion on story partnerships between German-language authors and young refugees

Wednesday, 7 December 2016, 5 pm
With Kerstin Hensel, Senthuran Varatharajah, Katerina Poladjan,
Ralph Hammerthaler and Larissa Boehning

The Akademie der Künste project “Our Stories – Rewrite the Future” starts on Wednesday, 7 December as part of the Uncertain States exhibition. The project creates story partnerships between young people arriving in Germany as refugees and German-speaking authors – including Kerstin Hensel, Senthuran Varatharajah, Katerina Poladjan, Ralph Hammerthaler, Ann Cotten and Larissa Boehning. The refugees recount their experiences of flight, exile and starting anew, feelings and views; the authors engage with these accounts, and through these shared encounters new literary narratives are created. The stories created over the following months – narratives of change in uncertain times – are presented together on the website www.rewrite-the-future.de.
In workshops, the authors work with their partners on narrative strategies to develop the motifs, images and ideas for a new, fictional narrative going beyond any single, particular biography. The individual themes are transformed into universal narratives in an era shaped by social transformation processes. These narratives will also be published on the website, and can be commented on, shared and supplemented by other media.
This archive of fractures and change can become a literary document on a time of social and political upheavals and individual new starts which demands to be read, encouraging a change of perspectives and facilitating better understanding across linguistic, cultural and other borders.

Funded by the Deutsche Literaturfonds.

Unsere Geschichten. Our Stories – Rewrite the Future
Opening discussion on Wednesday, 7 December 2016, 5 pm. Free admission.
Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, 10557 Berlin, Tel. 030 200 57-2000
 
Held as part of:
Uncertain States. Artistic Strategies in States of Emergency
Akademie der Künste exhibition and event programme
15 October 2016 – 15 January 2017, www.adk.de/uncertain-states
Funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes