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GMMs first Community Mosaic Project in Berlin

Published by gertrud

… is being developed together with the residents of “Haus 1” at the Möckernkiez in Berlin, Kreuzberg. In December 22 I was approached by the representative of the residents association, Dagmar Köppen and later commissioned by the association to help to design and produce mosaic Frieses for the 2 entrance areas together with the people living and working in the newly developed apartment block.

We started in January 2023 with a job walk to the two spaces that should be decorated with mosaic with representatives of the residents association. The decision fell to a fries made from different mosaic tiles each produced by participants from each residential unit.

In an interesting process we decided collectively with 3 representatives and me on the colors of the tiles that we would offer to be used.

We wanted to get to 10 colors. After seeing the space where the mosaic shall be again we did a firstround were every one of us would select 5 colors from a large selection of crayons. Then we selected the colors that several of us had chosen. After a second round doing exactly the same we had 10 colors and everyone was happy with it. It took just 30 minutes to decide between 5 people!

On Feb 21 Dagmar came to the studio to learn the Trencadis (broken tile) technique, that was developed by Antonio Gaudi and his workers.

During the weekend April 22/23 just one year after the inauguration of my previous community mosaic project in Beijing/China we will produce the tiles for one area with the residents of Haus 1 in two workshops.

 

 

Trauer nach dem Erdbeben in der Türkei und Syrien

Published by gertrud

I am mourning with the people in Turkey and in Syria about the loss of lives and livelihoods in the region of the earthquake.

Nusret Özdemir at the banks of the river Euphrates looking for suitable rocks for the background of the Ayvalik mosaic. He taught me how to inspect rocks to find out if they are suitable for making tesserae out of it.

In 2015 I spent a whole month in the city of Gaziantep learning and working together with Nusret Özdemir, a mosaic master and former security guard of the archeological museum Zeugma where the most beautiful mosaics were discovered in the last century. In his workshop we made the figures of the Ayvalik Mosaic – a project I did in 2015-16 to recreate a whole mosaic floor in ancient technique.

from right Nusret, Tahir and me at the Ayvalik Mosaic

During that month I was living in a flat share in Gaziantep with Ayse Ebru Corbaci who is the lead conservationist of the Gaziantep district.

Ayse, me and Nusret working on the Ayvalik Mosaic in Nusret’s workshop in Gaziantep

I have heard that both are well and their houses are still standing. I haven’t heard about the Zeugma Mosaic Museum in Gaziantep and also the situation at the archeological site. We will get to know about the conditions of these truly magnificent cultural heritage places – first is the care for the people that are insured and have lost their houses.

Inside the shelter building that protects archeological findings at the Zeugma archeological site.

 

 

Of checkers, flowers and hummingbirds

Published by gertrud

Youth volunteer David putting finishing touches to the Mosaic depicting symbols of the Scottish, Swedish, Amah Mutsun culture  that he mainly crafted

Yesterday afternoon at the Muzzio mosaic workshop the bell rang. It always rings when one of the 4×8” (1x2m) mosaic boards is finished. Everyone stood in awe around the table. The mosaic depicts symbols of 3 cultures: a brown and black checkered and a green thiestel head for  Scotland, blue pastell colored flowers on a white background standing for Sweden and a sparkling humming bird representing the Amah Mutsun culture which were the Indian population that lived here around Watsonville for thousands of years before the Spanish came.

The population of Watsonville is characterized by many waves of immigrants that came to work in the agricultural industry since centuries. People from all over the world were drawn to California to make a better living through manual labour on the fields. Now the population of  Watsonville is 85% Mexican.

From a small exhibition about the history of immigration and agriculture at the Watsonville public library I took this quote:

 

Finished Scottish, Swedish, Amah Mutsun Culture board at the Muzzio Mosaic Community Workshop in Watsonville.

This is a 5 year community art project to decorate the city garage entirely with mosaics featuring the cultural roots of the people of Watsonville. Last week I was helping to shape the birds wings 🙂 The Hummingbird in the Amah Mutsun culture stands for the controlled fires they set to their land to promote the growth of seed bearing annuals. The flapping of the wings of the hummingbird resembles the flapping of fans to control fire.