migrantas | a visual language of migration

Migrantas | a visual language of migration

Migrantas has been working on projects related to migration, identity and dialogue between different cultures. Their projects combine tools from the social sciences, graphic design and the visual arts to create a reflection of the migrant condition. Mobility, migration and transculturality are not exceptional any longer. On the contrary, they are becoming a very central phenomenon of our times. The thoughts and emotions of the immigrants though remain invisible to the greater part of society. Through their projects Migrantas aims to offer a means of making visible in the urban space the feelings and reflections of those who are now living in a new country. The members of Migrantas have themselves emigrated from Buenos Aires to Berlin. They conceive of their work with other migrants as a horizontal dialogue.

Graphic expression of one's own history

Migrantas invites other migrants to take part in workshops to reflect together on their situation. The former work of Migrantas is used as a stimulus for the debate. The circumstances that led to any person’s migration can be put into context by comparison with other migrants’ experiences and with the broader social and political circumstances within which they took place. Talking collectively helps to overcome the perception that people have unique, isolated experiences of migration and helps them acquire tools to better understand it. After the discussion, the participants express their feelings and opinions in simple drawings. Each drawing is shown and commented upon within the group.

From drawings to pictograms

Taking drawings produced during the workshops as a starting point, Migrantas develops a series of pictograms. All of them relate visually and conceptually to the ideas expressed by the participants. The complete drawings are carefully analyzed in order to identify key elements and common subjects. For example, the feeling of having a multiple cultural identity, the sadness of having the heart divided in two by distance and worries about children’s futures are all questions affecting migrants of very different backgrounds. The pictograms aim to offer a graphic summary of these ideas while respecting the character of the original drawing.

Simplicity and expression

The visual communication of Migrantas is based on pictograms. These basic pictures combine a high potential for expression with a great power of synthesis. Simple designs allow the transmission of a broad range of emotions. The message is both anonymous and personal, so that people from very different backgrounds can identify with them. At the same time, their universal character makes their comprehension easy beyond cultural codes. Pictograms are the visual language of a global world.

Acknowledgment and visibility

The meetings and collective exhibitions organized by Migrantas allow all workshop participants to meet, share their impressions and collectively evaluate the projects. Thus, the reflections and emotions of the migrants leave the narrower space where they were created to reach a broader audience. By making public their productions, the participants of the workshops see themselves recognized as active subjects. The visitors to the exhibition get the chance to more closely identify with the migrants’ experiences and emotions, as well as having an opportunity to express, with their own drawings, their ideas on the topic.

Being part of the city landscape

The installation of the pictograms in the public space is the defining moment and purpose of all Migrantas’ Projects. Be it through posters at advertising spots, digital animations to be shown on the underground transport, a campaign of free postcards or even shopping bags to carry and show around, the aim is always the same: to integrate the migrants’ emotions and reflections in the city. Their experiences become literally a part of the urban landscape. Now the city speaks about them. The process of making their opinions and impressions visible can be especially powerful for those women who live in patriarchal cultures where they are supposed to remain in the domestic realm. Through Migrantas’ urban actions the pedestrians are provoked into thinking and by doing so to complete the work.

2004 | Proyecto Ausländer | Buenos Aires

2005 | Integration | Berlin

2006 | Interkulturelle Werkstatt | Berlin

2006 | Bilder bewegen I | Berlin

2007 | Bundesmigrantinnen | Hamburg

2008 | Bundesmigrantinnen | Cologne

2006 | Bilder bewegen II | Berlin

For more information, photos and audio, please click on the titles.

2004 | Proyecto Ausländer Berlin-Buenos Aires 2003/2004 Making of a series of 12 Pictograms (Berlin). Installation in backlight advertising spots in the centre of Buenos Aires (Dec 2003-Jan 2004). Publication of 700 booklets (Asunto Impreso, ISBN 9789505330010, sold out). Supported by Publicidad Sarmiento.

2005 | Integration Pictures of Migrant Women in Berlin | Berlin 2005 Realisation of 11 workshops with women from 19 different countries. Creation of a series of 21 pictograms. Exhibition at the Galerie im Saalbau (Sep-Oct 2005) and installation of three bigger posters at 90 bus stops in Neukölln and 3 advertising spots in Kreuzberg. Financed by the Science, Research and Culture Administration of the City of Berlin and the Culture Office of Berlin-Neukölln.

2006 | Interkulturelle Werkstatt Networks with Migrant and Artist Women. Berlin 2006 Networking with migrants’ organizations. Realisation of 8 workshops. Campagne of distribution of 29.000 free postcards in 450 gastronomic venues of Berlin. Production of 300 shopping bags. Participation in the exhibition “City of women” (Kommunale Galerie, Nov-Dec 2006). Financed by the City of Berlin and the European Social Fund (EFS).

2006 | Bilder bewegen I Setting Interculturality and Migration in Motion | Berlin 2006 Realisation of 5 workshops. Campaign with digital animations at the TV of all the Berliner underground transport, (21- 25 Nov). Installation at the window of the Galerie im Saalbau. Financed by the Science, Research and Culture Administration of the City of Berlin and the Culture Office of Berlin-Neukölln. Bilder bewegen II A campaign under the auspices of the Ernst Reuter Initiative for Intercultural Dialogue and Understanding, a cooperation project of the ministers for foreign affairs of Turkey and Germany. Digital animation at the underground transport TV (18 - 23 Dec 2006).

2007 | Bundesmigrantinnen Images of Migrantion in Hamburg´s Urban Space. The project "Bundesmigrantinnen" aims to make the reflections and emotions of women migrants visible in Hamburg´s urban space. For that sake, their drawings about the migrant condition will be developed into pictograms and installed in the public space of Hamburg. The urban action will take place with posters at subway stations and other advertising spots.
These posters and the drawings upon which they are based will be shown at a public exhibition. During the whole action, the subject of migration in Hamburg will become visible in this city in an inovative, visually attractive way.

2008 | Bundesmigrantinnen Images of Migrantion in Cologne´s Urban Space.

Förderer und Unterstützer der bisher von migrantas realisierten Projekte waren:

since 2008
Travelling exhibition | Wanderausstellung

The travelling exhibition presents the results of the numerous socio-cultural projects that migrantas have undertaken in Berlin, Buenos Aires, Hamburg and Cologne, between 2003 and the present day. Bilingual texts with numerous images explain our work with hundreds of migrants. At the centre of the presentation is the unique developmental process, from sketch to an artistic pictogram, which enables migrantas to express and bring to light the everyday experiences and feelings of immigrant women.
The exhibition is suitable for congresses, conferences or symposia on migration and integration. It can also be displayed in public institutions.
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To read or listen, please click on title

Bundesmigrantinnen: 2007 Hamburg | 2008 Köln

International Herald Tribune | At home abroad | by Clare Fleishman 28./29.10.2005
Taz | Zwischenauftenthalt Berlin | by Waltraud Schwab, 20.10.2005
Jungle World | Ganz schön integriert | by Jessica Zeller, Nr. 41, 12.10.2005
Jüdische Allgemeine | Das interessiert Berlin | 14.10.2005
Zitty | Tagestipps | Plakatierung | Nr. 22/2005
Tagesspiegel | Ticket | 13.–19.10.2005
Diario Clarin | Inmigración en Europa | Argentina by Araceli Viceconte, 14.11.2005
radiomultikulti rbb Broadcast on Tue. 21.11.2006
radioeins rbb Broadcast Nov. 2005
rbb Abendschau Broadcast Nov. 2006

Web Article by Nimet Seker in: German, Polish, Italian, Turkish, French and English, 2008

Web-Presence

2008 | Exhibition | European Governance of Migration - International Conference | Heinrich Böll Stiftung | Berlin
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2008 | Participation | " The migrants" - Tania Bruguera | IN TRANSIT 08 - Haus der Kulturen der Welt | Berlin
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2008 | Website | Space - Gallery of Art & Migration | Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung
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2008 | Lecture | Launch project "Klappe, die Zweite!" | Berlin
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2007 | Exhibition | Messe Import Shop | Meine Deine Unsere Welt - Kulturen in Bewegung | Berlin
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2006 | Participation | Border Games Lounge | Berlin
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Museums: Inclusion of posters and postcards in the collections of the following museums:

Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin
Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn
Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires

Marula Di Como (artist) has been developing pictograms as a part of her aesthetical language since 2000. She and Florencia Young (graphic designer) had worked together in Buenos Aires in the projects "El futuro está en el papel pintado de la Bauhaus" (Goethe Institute, Buenos Aires, 1997) and "Des-Límites, Valle del Riachuelo Matanzas" (Goethe Institute, shown also in the Di Tella Institute and chosen by curator Catherine David for the exhibition "City Editing", Proa Foundation, Buenos Aires 1999). They met again in Berlin and together conceived "Proyecto Ausländer”, which deals with the experience of being a foreigner (Berlin and Buenos Aires, 2003/2004). In 2004 they invited sociologist Estela Schindel to take part in their work and together they formed the team Migrantas with the proyects : "Integration" (Berlin 2005), "Interkulturelle Werkstatt", "Bilder bewegen" y "Bilder bewegen II" (in Berlin 2006). Irma Leinauer (urban planner) joins Migrantas in 2006 to realise the proyect "Bundesmigrantinnen" beginning at first stage in Hamburg in autumn 2007.

Marula Di Como
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1963, has lived in Berlin since 2002. Artist. She has been taking part in individual and collective exhibitions since 1987. Her work can be found in museums, foundations and private collections in Argentina and abroad.

Florencia Young
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentinain 1965, has lived in Berlin since 2002. Graphic designer (UBA). She has taught at several universities, specializing in typography. She works in corporate identity design, multimedia stations and artistic installations.

Estela Schindel
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1968, has lived in Berlin since 1999. Sociologist. She studied Communications and holds a PhD in Sociology at the Free University of Berlin, where she currently teaches. She has published articles on art, memory, gender and migration.

Irma Leinauer
Born in Peiting, Germany in 1958, has lived in Berlin since 1985.
Residences abroad during several years. She has studied Urban and Regional Planning at the TU Berlin (Technical University of Berlin). She has published on history of modern architecture, housing and reighbourhood development.

Alejandra López
Born in Resistencia, Argentina in 1973, has lived in Berlin since 2001. Journalist.
She wrote for the newspaper "La Nacion" in Argentina. In Berlin works as radio and tv journalist and took part in many intercultural projects.

Impressum / Contact
Migrantas
Marula Di Como | Florencia Young
c/o Di Como - Ebertystraße 19
D-10249 Berlin
migrantas@yahoo.com
Inhaltlich Verantwortliche gemäß TMG § 5: Marula Di Como und Florencia Young
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