Closing by Anne Schülke

I understand this aesthetic process as an autosociobiographical process!

Parrots and Swans accompanied me intensively from 2020 to 2026. Together with people on site and with the invited artists, I got to know the district where I grew up in the 1970s, its architectural history, its people, plants and animals. We made art, showed it and discussed it. A series of coincidences and the recognition of the right moments shaped the process. I understand this aesthetic process as an autosociobiographical process.

The poem I wrote here and took with me to the suburbs of Florence, Seoul, Ankara and Marseille sets me towards a future:

We are the vulnerable.
Those with little money and no inheritance awaiting us.
We do not hope and we do not wait.
We are blooming now.

We are going into the owners' neighbourhoods now.
We are gaining access to the centres of cities now.
To the smart cities and the gated communities at their outskirts.

And we say:
We want this flat. We want this house.
We bring you vulnerability. Kitsch. Reality.

We give up the owners' neighbourhoods. The owners learn from us.
Because we are bound to the last children and chicks and seedlings.
We make the past shine in the present.
We are everywhere.

More:
Video From The Suburbs
Interview UNITE Ankara
Conference paper Universität Aix/Marseille (forthcomming)

My thanks go to:
Detlef Klepsch, Daria Nazarenko, Tanja Kodlin, Tachi, Stefan Kauertz, Oliver Gather, Katharina Maderthaner, Roman Zheleznyak, Ute Hörner, Christian Schreckenberger, Claudia Robles-Angel, Carol Pilars de Pilar, Franklin Berger, Kamila Kurczewski, Ingo Toben, Kathryn Nix, Kolja Fröhlich, Martin Baer, Thyra Schmidt, Markus Wilkens, Taj Irzhavskaia, Naro Egheanz, Andreas Anon, Leonard Schmidt-Dominé, Monika Sowa, Adwoa Adjei, Neneta Tekama / friendship e.V., Emilene Wopana Mudimu / KingzCorner e.V., Annelie Braun, Jaroslaw Gerlaczka / BIWAQ project InWESTment plus, Cornelia Schillig / municipal senior citizens’ centre, Rev. Matthias Leithe, Cantor Martin Hanke / Protestant parish of Ratingen, Melanie Kerscher / Protestant nursery school Berliner Strasse, Karin Hanke / MLK comprehensive school, Rev. Kern, Rosi Herrmann / Catholic parish of Ratingen-West, Michaela Peter, Gebhard Netik, Ilias Papadopoulos / Diakonie Ratingen, Sabine Krebs / district office Ratingen-West, Erik Kleine-Vennekate, Heiko Knappstein, Sebastian Barteleit / Ratingen town archive, Anne Rodler, Wiebke Siever / Museum Ratingen, Jörg Althen / VHS Ratingen, Tim Heyer / youth club West.