Glocal Neighbours

Local neighbourhoods are connected to the global world in a range of different ways. What this means and how people from different neighbourhoods and backgrounds can benefit from their experiences is what the Glocal Neighbours project organised by the Israeli Center for Digital Art in Holon and the Wagenhallen Kunstverein in Stuttgart is trying to find out. The great diversity of the participants is at the forefront of the case studies in the districts of Jessy Cohen and Nordbahnhof/Rosenstein: they come from the areas of education, social work, art and culture, are local residents or activists in their neighbourhoods or representatives of local municipal services.

They are all united by the same goal of regarding their respective districts as a place of shared involvement and participation for themselves and others, with the others in question not just living round the corner but also in the globalised world. Problems and issues both here and there – how do they differ from one another and what do they have in common? What can they learn from one another and how can mutual inspiration be brought about? Reciprocal visits to workshops allow the participants to develop new perspectives and creative solutions for the social spaces they represent: what experiences have both sides made with municipal activities and which artistic and social participatory approaches carry the greatest learning potential for the respective other group? Which global processes are reflected in the local and vice versa? The knowledge that both sides compile and expand upon is finally presented in a database available to people from both communities. It forms an important stepping stone on the way to new insights and projects on both sides, not least with a view to a long-term collaboration between the local institutions, residents of both districts and the project organisers.

Glocal Neighbours is a neighbourhood project by the Israeli Center for Digital Art in Holon, Israel in collaboration with the Kunstverein Wagenhallen in Stuttgart. Between September 1, 2013 and August 31, 2014, six to seven participants aged between 20 and 40 from the city districts of Jessy Cohen and Nordbahnhof/Rosenstein respectively exchanged experiences and each visited the respective other community. These participants included representatives of local institutions as well as people active in the areas of art, social work and education. A shared database was created. In 2015, the mutual visits are professional visits, each one focuses on a different discipline, allowing the participants to explore their specific field more profoundly. In addition an international conference will be held at the Center for Digital Art towards the end of the year, and a reader will be published.