Awakening silent forces

on the exhibition “Käthe Kollwitz: Silent Forces – Works from the Ute Kahl Collection, Cologne”

The workshop is based on rarely seen, delicate drawings by Käthe Kollwitz from a private collection. The people portrayed in the drawings appear introverted – their eyes closed, covered or gazing away in the distance. A moment of silence has been captured in chalk and pencil.

These scenes seem like time has stopped for a moment. We ask ourselves: What happened before or after this moment? How do the people in the pictures feel? How might their story continue?

We also take a look at social conditions and living standards in Berlin – in the past, at the end of the 19th century, and today. Each participant chooses a picture that particularly appeals to and challenges them to tell its story. In the educational room, they work in small groups to develop their own narratives, which are recorded in drawings in a shared leporello.