Patrick Kennedy
Patrick Kennedy is in charge of communications for WIR MACHEN DAS and a member of the management team. His aim is to strengthen the association’s visibility through meaningful communication – without taking the air out of poetry. Likes black tea.
Uta Rüchel
Uta Rüchel is the project manager for our constitution project „In bester Verfassung“. She organises citizen dialogues all over Germany in the hope of bringing those together who normaly tend to solely talk about other people. She prefers good questions to ready-made answers.
The Smell of Dictatorship ++ Open Call ++
Open Call: Wenn Sie in der DDR oder in Syrien gelebt haben, laden wir Sie ein, Ihre Erfahrungen, Geschichten und Fotos mit uns zu teilen, um eine Karte der Sinne mit uns zu erstellen.
What does dictatorship smell like? What does it leave behind inside of us? How does it represent itself on a city map, how is it inscribed in the streets, libraries, bodies, everyday objects and archives? Dictatorships do not leave us. Even when we leave them behind, they grow a map of sensation inside of us. Sensations that combine the past, the present and the future.
If you have lived in the GDR or in Syria (or in any other dictatorship) we are inviting you to share your experience, stories, photos and to navigate this map of sensations with us.
- Contact us if you have left the GDR to live in Syria or vice versa. We are interested in your personal experience of similarities that link the two countries in your memory / your dreams / your body.
- if you are from the GDR and have been in contact with Syrians (e.g. letter exchange, studies, relationships, etc.);
- or if memories of yours are triggered when you see, smell, hear, taste, or do something that brings you back to experiences of dictatorship. (e.g. hearing a certain type of music, seeing objects such as a certain type of furniture or cloths, etc.);
- If you have dreams related to a dictatorship.
Get in touch! Send your experience in writing, photos, drawings to Dima AlBitar Kalaji and Annett Gröschner until 1 July 2021 at redaktion(at)wirmachendas.jetzt
We will present the outcome of this project in literary texts and readings, a podcast and a visual exhibition on the WIR MACHEN DAS website.
Read more about this project.
Read Information in Arabic.
The project page of The Smell of Dictatorship
“The smell of Dictatorship” is a WIR MACHEN DAS project by the author and editor Dima AlBitar Kalaji and the writer Annett Gröschner. It is funded by the Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur (The Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Eastern Germany).
Sophie Boitel
Sophie Boitel is the Managing Director of WIR MACHEN DAS. Her main areas of expertise include diversity in art and culture as well as equality of opportunity and participation. In her previous work stations she worked for the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the Genshagen Foundation and S27- Art and Education.
Rebecca Ellsäßer
*1978 in Berlin, studied Romance languages and literature and worked as a freelance journalist. She has been supporting authors, publishers and institutions as a PR consultant for several years. With her November agency, she is on the road all year round in the service of literature.
Thao Nguyen
Thao Nguyen studied social sciences and is a political education expert. She is the project manager of the Meet Your Neighbours initiative „Safe Art Space“ and also works for the assosiaction Migrationsrat Berlin e.V. In her free time, she enjoys cooking and being outdoors.
Natascha Baumgärtner
lives and works as a freelance illustrator in Berlin. Tascha is responsible for social media at WIR MACHEN DAS. When she’s not drawing or making pottery, she’s probably sitting in the park with a watermelon.
Schokofeh Kamiz
Schokofeh Kamiz works as a freelance and independent video artist and filmmaker. She also runs workshops and works with various levels of education. For WIR MACHEN DAS, she is responsible for the project ‘Pipe Up! The Word Workshop’ in cooperation with Publix.