Migrantas

The Berlin-based artist collective Migrantas was established in 2004 in Berlin. The collective is dedicated to using art, design and social sciences to issues of migration, identity and intercultural dialogue. The central means of expression is the artistic and graphic design of icons. The pictograms of Migrantas resemble the icons that you see everywhere in the world in the public space, such as in airports.

For Migrantas pictograms are universally understandable, simple and standardized design for placement of iconographic messages; Pictograms do not require many words and are conventionally and language-independent for concise advertising messages, signage or traffic signs used. Pictograms are globalized font. Therefore Migrantas uses the language of pictograms, the pictorial representation of numerous individual, cultural, socio - economic and political aspects of migration. To gain experience, organizes and directs Migrantas workshops in social and cultural associations and organizations of migrant labor. Motivates the participants to express their feelings and their personal confrontation in a different culture and their everyday experiences in simple drawings and sketches to condense these pictograms.

The aim is to carry the pictograms created in the public space, this is achieved by means of ' urban actions ' in lots of ways: by placarding on urban billboards, animations in digital media, public transport, by wide postcard distribution or by the pressure on shopping bags. In parallel, designed Migrantas exhibitions that presents with its exhibits not only incurred during the course of a project pictograms but also all the original drawings of the workshop participants. Public recognition is given to all those who have never previously reached by their experiences of immigration and migration to the public.

The members of Migrantas are migrants themselves and conceive their work as horizontal, non-hierarchical dialogue. The project, which is not financed itself has organized numerous activities since 2004 in various European cities.

Migrantas 2011 was awarded the Capital Prize for Integration and Tolerance Initiative capital Berlin.

Projects and exhibitions (selection)

  • 2004 Proyecto foreigners, Berlin and Buenos Aires.
  • 2005 Integration Lauter images of migrants, Berlin.
  • 2006 Intercultural Workshop, Berlin.
  • Move 2006 Pictures, Berlin.
  • 2007 Federal migrants, Hamburg.
  • 2008 Federal migrants, Cologne.
  • 2009 Hessian State Museum in Darmstadt.
  • 2010 Seville plural nature of migration in the public domain, Spain.
  • 2010 Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen.
  • 2011 Europe - child European School - Images of diversity, Berlin.

Participation (selection)

  • Seyla Benhabib, Judith Resnik (ed.): Migration and Mobilities: Citizenship, Borders, and Gender. NY Press, ISBN 0-8147-7600-0 ( cover picture)
  • Dirk Lange, Ayça Polat (ed.): Migration and everyday life. Our reality is different. Newsreel -Verlag, Schwalbach / Ts. 2010, ISBN 978-3-89974-659-4 ( cover picture and illustrate )
  • Susanne Stemmler: multiculturalism 2.0; Welcome to the immigration country Germany. Wallenstein, ISBN 978-3-8353-0840-4 ( cover picture)
Workshop (disambiguation) Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt
571145
de