Subjective mapping of Luxembourg
★ Autumn 2018 → Autumn 2019 ⚑
Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain invited Subjective Editions to collaboratively map Luxembourg from the inside out, capturing its cultural phenomena, tracing its complexities, and revealing the treasures held by its inhabitants. During an open exhibition and workshop in 2018 (curated by Véronique Kesseler), visitors were invited to contribute their visual voices. Creative practitioners with a connection to Luxembourg responded to open calls to map the country through themes meaningful to them—whether via drawings, infographics, photo series, or other forms of cartographic exploration—and to collectively show what Luxembourg represents at this moment in time.
Process
What does it mean to live in Luxembourg from a social and cultural point of view? What are the issues at stake? How to subjectively map the imperatives, sensitivities and complexities linked to it? Artists, designers and other creatives from Luxembourg were invited to raise their visual voices during a series of workshops organised at Casino Luxembourg - Forum d'art contemporain. Guided by the designer Annelys de Vet, contributors of the Luxembourg Subjective Atlas were invited to share their personal experiences, their intuitions and their multiple visions of the Luxembourg context.
With the support of the Œuvre Nationale de Secours Grande-Duchesse Charlotte, this ‘open atelier’ was orgnaised in the context of Design City LX Festival, november 2018.
Over the course of the exhibition, special workshops for visitors, groups and school children were organised by the designer Lucie Majerus: “At first many kids had difficulties getting the national colours out of their mind when I invited them to come up with a new flag. There was one class from Kirchberg who depicted the duality of Luxembourg city: the high liners and skyscrapers versus the nature of the valley. One girl showed both, the city and its transportation shown by the Adolphe bridge and the new colourful tram as well as the nature part; the valley topped with trees.”
One might imagine Luxembourg to be a restricted country gravitating around Luxembourg City, but actually this is absolutely not the case. Each region has its own characteristics. Three workshops were organised outside Casino Luxembourg. Giacomo Piovan, who runs the social design studio Socialmatter, was given the task of finding these missing links. The first workshop took place at Bamhaus, where Urban Sketchers Luxembourg shared their drawings made on-location at different sites. Then we played host to Kulturfabrik, a cultural centre located in Esch-sur-Alzette. Here the more edgy part of Luxembourg, the industrial South, was unveiled. Finally, we dived into the North and asked the participants at Cooperations Art Wiltz, an art centre for artists with disabilities, to come up with unexpected perspectives. Students from the Lycée des Arts et Métiers also collaborated in this inclusive project. Thanks to this participative approach, we were able to actively involve about forty participants, giving many the chance to raise their visual voice on Luxembourg.
To complete the atlas, the editors invited individual artists, photographers and designers to contribute additional works to secure a diverse view of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
Reviews
“Denkt man an die Bedeutung, die wir heute mit dem Wort „Atlas“ verknüpfen, nämlich an eine Kartografie unseres gemeinsamen Lebensraumes, so wirkt diese Bildsprache nicht nur veraltet, sondern auch gefährlich. Denn die Wahrnehmung der Welt war und ist nicht so statistisch, wie diese Darstellungen vorgeben. Es existiert nicht nur ein allgemeingültiges Narrativ, und es ist auch nicht sinnvoll, einem alten weißen Mann mit Rückenproblemen die gesamte Verantwortung dafür zu überlassen. Der multiperspektivische Ansatz des Subjective Atlas-Projektes ist dem gerade Beschriebenen diametral entgegengesetzt.”
— Anne Schaaf, Forum für Politik, Gesellschaft und Kultur (July/August 2021 #419)
Un kaléidoscope identitaire plutôt bien vu qui parle, entre autres, d'architecture, de jardins communautaires, de vélos et des pistes cyclables très «dangereuses», de graffitis, d'innombrables cafés, de prestigieuses vitrines côtoyant des enseignes en déclin, de maisons modernes et d'anciens logements ouvriers, de la nature résistante au développement urbain, de gastronomie, de transports publics saturés... Véronique Kesseler y a aussi apporté sa contribution en arpentant deux semaines durant les boulangeries pour y faire le plein des fameux beignets («Verwurelter»), «la seule bonne chose durant le carnaval» pour elle.
— Grégory Cimatti, LE LUXEMBOURG AUTREMENT, Le Quotidien (6 November 2019)
“Un livre plein de sensibilité, qu’on savoure lentement, en dégustant chaque page pour bien rentrer dans la subjectivité de chaque auteur. Un ouvrage poétique, enrichissant et éclairant sur le Luxembourg d’aujourd’hui.”
— Céline Coubray, Paperjam (14 November 2019)
Acknowledgements
This publication is a result of a collaboration between Subjective Editions and Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain
Editor-in-chief: Annelys Devet Research and editing: Véronique Kesseler, Lucie Majerus, Giacomo Piovan Introduction: Anne Schaaf Graphic design: Alix Bouteleux, Annelys Devet in collaboration with all the contributors
Contributors: Dean Baldwin, Veronika Batzdorfer, Charles Baudouin, Sven Becker, Elena Bienfait, Germain Birgen, Justine Blau, Léon Bollen, Linda Bos, Alix Bouteleux, Sam Brachmond, Vos Broekema, Nuno Coelho, Amer Demirovic, Ines Da Cunha Teixeira, Yannick de Campos, Annelys Devet, Max Dostert, Étienne Duval, José Ebel, Serge Ecker, Fred Entringer, Lisa Folschette, Clémence Gachot-Coniglio, Jil Gaertner, Yorgos Garofalakis, Snejana Granatkina, Samuel Hamen, Marc Hartmann, Max Heiderscheid, Veronique Heijnsbroek, Lisa Junius, Maringlen Kabali, Lisa Keiffer, Gilles Kelber, Véronique Kesseler, Reza Kianpour, Francis Kirtz, Jean Bernard Koeman, Vito Labalestra, Maëlle Lepetit, Gianmarco Liacy, Sandra Lieners, Laera Lorenzo, Luca Mahnke, Lucie Majerus, Jill Mamer, Nadine Mamer-Muller, Emmy Martija, Philippe Martins, Isabelle Mattern, Steph Meyers, Irina Moons, Louis Moris, Bruno Oliveira, Edmond Oliveira, Anne Rose Oosterbaan, Edy Palm, Karine Paris, Vincent Peret, Giacomo Piovan, Muna Plijevaljici, Halldora Ragnarsdottir, Olga Reiff, Pierre Reyland, Nora Amélie Sahr, Anne Schaaf, Christophe Schammel, Didier Scheuren, David Schmit, Philippe Schockweiler, Julie Seyler, Nadège Simonin, Kenon Smajic, Alix Toureille-Bourgeais, Frederick Thompson, Julie Wagener, Daniel Wagener, Manon Wenner, Cooperation Wiltz, Kristina Wittal, Luigi Zhan
Special acknowledgements: Anna Loporcaro (Design City LX) for starting the project of the Subjective Atlas of Luxembourg in the frame of the festival. Fred Entringer, Natasja d’Herbais De Thun (Lycée Guillaume Kroll), Giorgia Lopez, Andrea Rumpf, Jaime & Ivan (Lightmatter), Joseph Tomassini, Manon Wenner, Jan Glas, Didier Scheuren (Coopérations Wiltz Entreprises socio-culturelles ), Rob Vintage, Nei Aarbecht I CNDS (comité national de défense sociale), ProActif a.s.b.l. and CK Charles Kieffer Group.
With the generous support of: Casino Luxembourg - Forum d’art Contemporain, OEuvre Nationale de Secours Grande-Duchesse Charlotte, Banque de Luxembourg
