“Imagine, exactly here would be a synagogue, a mosque, a Hindu temple, or a Buddhist stupa!” With this thought experiment passengers were confronted in the city of Essen in September 2010. Only for a short time, the project ‘Sondernutzung’ (access permit) called attention to religious diversity that is often unnoticed in modern migration societies like Germany. An eye-catching installation art required from visitors to reconceive their perceptions of religious minorities and provided information about religious communities in the Metropole Ruhr. ‘Sondernutzung’ is a project of the research group ‘Religion and Values’ of the Global Young Faculty and the architectonic art group N222. The project was kindly supported by the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities in Essen (KWI) and the Stiftung Mercator as well as from the University Alliance Metropole Ruhr and the cultural capital of Europe RUHR.2010.
http://issuu.com/von_eff/docs/sondernutzung_final_web_einzelseiten/1
Publication: Arbeitsgruppe Religion und Werte der Global Young Faculty & N222 (Eds.). (2011). Sondernutzung – Ein transdisziplinäres Kunst- und Wissenschaftsprojekt zur Bedeutung religiöser Vielfalt im öffentlichen Raum [Sondernutzung – A Transdisciplinary Project Combining Art and Science to Evaluate the Meanings of Religious Diversity in Public Space]. Essen: Stiftung Mercator. (ed. by Alexander von Freeden & Maik Arnold). [Download]
