Projects

It has real symbolic power that FREEARTUS is located here in the center of Berlin in the Museum and Art Quarter. Art is the credo of our work. Art moves people – especially emotionally. That is why art is sustainable. Art makes us think, provokes us – and lets us experience beauty. The experience of beauty is a moment of truth. These moments of truth between people are what it’s all about – they are the motor for change, for improvement. On a smaller scale, on a larger scale.

FREEARTUS was essentially founded by artists and is still run by artists today. Art was and is the instrument of all integration and emancipation work of FREEARTUS.

In the process FREEARTUS went through different phases – and will often readjust its orientation in the future. The impulses for this come very strongly from those with whom we work together, from whom we learn, whom we teach – whom we support. It is an equal taking and giving, giving and taking – what comes first is not decided, nor is it of interest. What matters is the equal, human encounter.

In Phase 1 after its founding in 2015, FREEARTUS initially focused strongly on the so-called integration of newcomers – former refugees from war and persecution in the Middle East – into the German host society at the height of the so-called refugee wave. FREEARTUS focused on the support of all those who professionally belong to the creative industries: Artists of all disciplines – musicians, singers, actors, dancers, directors, filmmakers, painters, photographers, poets, publicists, journalists, architects, designers – and students of these subjects as well as academics in general. Several projects were aimed specifically at newcomer women – and subsequently quite a few men also needed the mentorship of FREEARTUS in order to orient themselves in their new, so very different environment…

At the same time FREEARTUS initiated first meetings and projects in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and realized them together with universities, artistic organizations, and e.g. also the Biennale di Venezia.

Phase 2 is on the one hand characterized by the continuation of the initiated projects, but on the other hand strongly influenced by the establishment of LAWRENCE in Berlin Mitte. The LAWRENCE cultural forum, with galleries, event spaces, a large oriental café and restaurant, quickly established itself as a prominent meeting place and venue for international cultural exchange in the center of the German capital.

The successful project LAWRENCE, which reached many people and won prizes, finds its completion, continuation and extension in the ONE SKY academy – which is to be counted to Phase 3 of the development of FREEARTUS. Here the interest in international understanding, self-determination, Third Enlightenment is in the center of the – artistic, social and scientific – discussion.

This Phase 3 means at the same time a break for the orientation regarding integration and emancipation. Many of the functions that FREEARTUS had initially taken on here are now covered by state or municipal, large charitable or social institutions. FREEARTUS goes one step further and now addresses the consequences of failed integration – i.e. discrimination, segregation, radicalization, populism, anti-liberty and anti-democratic processes.