Radio Rotondes, in collaboration with Radio ARA #11 Freedom & Exchange

“You can’t help being creative when you’re in an environment where you feel free, secure and seen.”

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This podcast is also available on Radio ARA’s website.

In this episode we talk about how we can help other people develop their creativity. We will ask ourselves what a human needs to be creative. But we will also discuss inclusion by talking about and with artists with disabilities. We want to show a part of the art scene that still gets too little visibility and recognition these days.

First, we talk to several people who work with artists with disabilities. Most of them work in workshops where they do creative work, be it in theater, the visual arts or in product design. They will describe how they help others awaken and develop their creativity. The disabilities of the people they work with are irrelevant and they’re just there to help them fulfill their potential. They tell us which environment, rooms, ways of thinking and techniques they create or use to stimulate the creativity of others. We also talk about the barriers that exist in the art scene for people with disabilities and how together we can create a more inclusive society.

Finally, we speak with several artists who work in Cooperations Wiltz’s art workshop. They explain their works of art and their techniques. They also share how art has changed their lives and what they want to achieve with their creations.

Our panel of guests around the theme
of the development of creativity

1:34 — 53:03 to listen to the group interview. The interview was given in German.

Didier Scheuren (Cooperations)

Didier Scheuren heads the art workshop of COOPERATIONS S.Coop, called CooperationsART. COOPERATIONS S.Coop offers people with disabilities a network of different inclusion workshops to support their professional integration. Jobs are offered in the hotel and gastronomy industries, in gardening and in the arts. The art workshop gives people time, space and material to devote themselves to their artistic activities and to develop their potential. The art workshop is an artist collective which support an interdisciplinary and integrative network of artists.

Moni Kukawka (com.guck Theater)

Moni Kukawka has been working in inclusive theater for 20 years. She founded the inclusive theater group com.guck in Trier. The ensemble currently consists of 15 actors, ten of whom have a disability. She has also done inclusive theater in Luxembourg, with the help of the a.s.b.l. Trisomie21 and also in the An der Sonn youth center in Lorentzweiler. (photo: com.guck Theater)

Gilles Seyler (Collectif Dadofonic)

Gilles Seyler is a freelance artist and works as a theater pedagogue for the Ligue HMC in the Dadofonic collective. The Ligue HMC supports people with intellectual disabilities and advocates for their social, professional and cultural inclusion. Among other things, the Ligue HMC has several sheltered workshops where it supports, hires and accompanies employees with or without intellectual disabilities. The Dadofonic collective is a professional artistic ensemble for theater, visual arts and movement. The main objective of the collective is the production of stage and street performances. (photo: Collectif Dadofonic)

Susi Pfeiffer & Florence Legendre (ATP)

Susi Pfeiffer and Florence Legendre manage the design workshop of the Eilenger KonschtWierk, one of the six locations of the non-profit ATP. ATP a.s.b.l. offers psycho-social rehabilitation support to people living with a mental illness. It also offers access to employment in working conditions beneficial towards recovery. The aim is to offer people with a mental disorder a job in which they can develop themselves, be valued and make a meaningful contribution to society. Furthermore, the participants can retrain themselves and learn new things in order to later find a job. The Eilenger KonschtWierk offers jobs in the fields of gastronomy, design, wood manufacturing, art screen printing or textile screen printing. (photo: ATP)

For more information about the associations and collecives, check out the links at the end of this article.

Featured artists

Francis Kirtz

Several years ago Francis Kirtz discovered Aboriginal art and a technique of painting with dots which has mainly worked with ever since. He takes paintings or photographs and paints over them with dots. He also makes abstract paintings. His works are mostly brightly coloured, with labyrinth-like patterns that create impressive paintings.

1:07:42 — 1:10:08 to listen to the interview. The interview was done in German.

Ponx

Ponx is a graffiti artist who has only been doing graffiti for two years. He mainly does “style writing”, a style in which you write your own name in such a way that you can hardly recognise it. He is very ambitious and wants to develop further in graffiti.

1:10:09 — 1:12:56 to listen to the interview. The interview was done in Luxembourgish and in German.

Lisa Schmit

Lisa Schmit has always been fascinated by art. She paints, writes, draws, makes embroideries and much more. Not only does she love fine arts, she’s also passionate about dancing. She lives out her dreams in her pictures and objects of castles and palaces, princes and flowers. With her imagination, she transforms even mundane everyday objects into magical objects, such as old irons which turn into charming eyes.

1:12:57 — 1:14:39 to listen to the interview. The interview was done in French.

Emmi Martija

Emmi Martija is a cartoonist. She was fascinated by comics very early on and wanted to draw like the cartoons she loved, so she taught herself to draw. Her drawings are full of humour. She mostly draws superheroes, Disney characters and celebrities. She often criticises society in her drawings or shows her favourite cartoon characters in unusual situations.

1:14:40 — 1:17:35 to listen to the interview. The interview was done in French.

Ben Kieffer

Ben Kieffer’s drawings can often be shocking as his favorite subjects are drugs, sex, horror and provocation. But there lies so musch more behind these drawings. Every drawing has a very deep explanation and some of them are meant as criticisms towards society.

1:17:36 — 1:19:59 to listen to the interview. The interview was done in French.

Fatima De Moura

On the one hand, Fatima De Moura makes a lot of embroidery pictures. She has a unique, instantly recognisable technique. In her embroidery pictures she shows her dreams and longings, such as traveling to exotic countries. On the other hand, Fatima also loves to write. Nowadays she takes newspaper articles, copies them and makes drawings to accompany them. Fatima is also very interested in people. She interviews people she meets and creates texts and drawings in response to those interviews.

1:20:00 — 1:22:37 to listen to the interview. The interview was done in Luxembourgish and in German

Tania Steinfort

Tania Steinfort has only recently joined the art studio but has always been interested in art, especially modern and abstract art. At the moment she is trying out different techniques. She started with action painting because she always wanted to paint like Jackson Pollock. As she was about to throw away her old photos, the idea came up to burn them and paint something with the ashes. Her paintings are very impressive and full of emotion.

1:22:37 — 1:24:52 to listen to the interview. The interview was done in German.

To learn more about the different artists, check out the links at the end of this article.

Resources about inclusion

Nëmme Mat Eis (in English: only with us!) is committed to the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Luxembourg, which was ratified by Luxembourg on the September 26, 2011. The purpose of this Convention “is to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity”. (Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
Daaflux a.s.b.l. is an organisation for the deaf and hearing-impaired persons in Luxembourg. The purpose of the association is to promote the interests of hearing-impaired persons, to improve their situation in professional and non-professional contexts and to promote a better understanding of the hearing-impaired among themselves and with non-disabled people.
ZAK (Zesummen Aktiv) ( in English: Active together) is an association whose purpose is to promote the inclusion of mentally disabled persons through sports, cultural and social activities.
ZEFI (Zesummen fir Inklusion) ( in English: Together for Inclusion) is an association composed of parents of person with disabilities, professionals in the educational sector and people who support inclusion in our society. Its purpose is to promote inclusion in all facets of life, to support parents and to raise awareness.
Info Handicap offers guidance for persons with disabilities and their families. They also offer training around accessibility and promote accessible tourism.
CET (Centre pour l’égalité de traitement) is active in the field of inclusion and anti-discrimination overall. Its purpose is to promote, analyse and monitor equal treatment between all persons without discrimination on the basis of race or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, religion or beliefs, handicap or age.
List of associations working in the field of inclusion according to the Ministry of Family and Integration
List of workshops that offer employment for persons with disabilities
Neue Norm: German online magazine and podcast on disability
Leidmedien: Tips (in German) for the media representation of people with disabilities
Inclusion ganz einfach liewen: Podcast in Luxembourgish about inclusion
Recommendations by several Luxembourgish organisations active in the field of inclusion on how to portray people with disabilities in the media (in German). This PDF can be useful for anyone who wants to understand some of society’s current behaviours that go against inclusion.
Instagram Accounts about Disability (in German): raulkrauthausen, fraugehlhaar, edwin.greve, luisalaudace

Radio Rotondes, in collaboration with Radio ARA #11 Freedom & Exchange

Listen to the show