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In summer 2014, the infirmary of the Operndorf Afrika was opened. Its sponsor was the Burkina Faso Health Authority and Burkina Faso doctors worked on site. The project is still running under its own management. And that’s exactly the approach that the health experts at the University of Witten/Herdecke are pursuing: The transfer of knowledge in regions of the world that want to develop further following the principle “Help people to help themselves”.
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The Operndorf is a bold project. It is about daring change. The effects are felt on a much more internal and personal level in the sense that this change is experienced by the people who experience it on site rather than by those, who administrate it. The initiative enables the artists to experience something different and to think differently. It’s as if we were creating the condition to which each child or artist can become an actor of development in acquiring much more unlimited freedom via the sphere of arts.
”Three words from Christoph Schlingensief always come to mind: ‘Do, do, do.’ The Operndorf Afrika follows this call in the best sense and with the indispensable courage to thereby make mistakes.
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Value of support – The Operndorf Afrika is leading to the creation of cultural spaces, creates perspectives and shapes an intercultural dialogue.
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The Operndorf represents a world governed by knowledge, curiosity,
hope, community and creativity. More than that, it is a place where
Christoph’s utopian vision has a very real, practical impact on the
daily lives of the people it touches. We are proud supporters of the
Operndorf and our wish is only that the village continues to grow and
to thrive.
”I think the special thing about the idea of the Operndorf is the attempt of real participation, on the basis of collective growth.
Such that someone does not simply arrive with the intention of giving or showing something, but instead with the intention of doing it together, learning something from each other and then seeing if something useful can emerge wherefrom – for you and for me.
At best, we present ourselves with the gift of dealing with each other with respect and the opportunity for common further development.
”Earlier, many people thought that African problems are merely the problems of Africa. The refugees make it clear that African problems are becoming European. Everything Africa needs must also be created. This includes the Operndorf Afrika.
”I am glad that the Operndorf is developing, it is source of comfort to me. The idea of Christoph Schlingensief’s that we should learn from Africa and keep our mouths shut, listen and watch what happens there in the Operndorf, when the children and schoolchildren make their photos there, sing and dance classes or rehearsal theater plays – is what I share with the Operndorf Afrika, I simply want to learn!
”Why that at all? Because there’s no other way, because we have to do it, because it’s good, because it has to continue rolling, living dancing! Christoph Schlingensief made me laugh, made me think, made me angry, and made me go to the theater! The Operndorf Afrika is not only his legacy but a testimony of a specific time: its politic art and culture. Aino Laberenz is continuing his vision with the same dedication and determination which need to be only and truly supported.
”I have experienced Christoph as an artist who became personal. Looked others in the eyes! Took note of pupils, the disabled, celebrities as people, artists, those who had failed, as well as the hopeful! As a pupil, he shot his first film. In the Operndorf Afrika he leaves behind the principle of hope.
”Christoph Schlingensief had a vision with the Operndorf Afrika: Whereby art should evolve out of what surrounds it.
With the Operndorf Afrika he has created a place where the future and visions in a community evolve and are realised in a new generation.
I admire the project, for holding on to these visions and for the contribution to their further development.
This need to rediscover art is what needs to be encouraged and supported.
”Unfortunately, I never had the chance to get to know Christoph Schlingensief.
I strongly admire the power, the will and the strength of Aino to continue this beautiful project on this incredibly rich continent. The Opera Village is a unique project. Aino and the entire team are working together on prospering and keeping alive Christoph’s vision and that is why I support this project wholeheartedly.
The “Operndorf in Burkina Faso” is a unique project: the vision of an intercultural exchange between Europe and Africa that Christoph Schlingensief brought to life. Schlingensief went beyond all boundaries in his lifetime. His conception of art is a legacy that must be fulfilled. For his idea, he spared no effort. His commitment was honest; It challenges us. That is why the development of the Operndorf is a personal concern for us, so that we can also break down boundaries in the future and make art capable of being experienced in a special way.
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Operndorf Afrika, the legacy of Christoph Schlingensief, will be continued by Aino Laberenz in a sincere, personal and direct manner. Through her leadership and commitment, nothing disappears in the drift mills or pockets of an organization, but reaches where it should. This project gives me hope for a future without borders and fences, where art builds a bridge between cultures. I am happy to be a building block in this bridge and hope others will do the same. If we all share what we own, we all have some of it longer, and the effort is not that big for everyone.
”Since the birth of the Operndorf, the Goethe-Institute Burkina Faso is a close partner and we are delighted to help shape the cultural vision of the Operndorf, with the aim of promoting the artistic exchange between artists and creating a place of reflection and creative development.
”The Operndorf Afrika is a wonderful idea by Christoph Schlingensief! I am especially impressed by how art and life become a unity there. It is great that Aino Laberenz is following though with this great project with so much commitment!
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Christoph was a great thinker; I stress this, because this side of him has been hardly appreciated. In my opinion the Operndorf Afrika (and much more!) also constitutes for the opera (and for so much more!) a paradigm for the disempowerment of Europe, where the opera was invented. And he knew that power is alien to art (like life itself) and that it must be voluntarily passed on, not due to pity or charitable condescension, but because it is inherent in art that it does not want any power and therefore must pass power on at any given time, in order to be able to remain art at all.
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Operndorf Afrika fascinates me with its vision as well as through the continual feat of strength that is its actual realisation. Much more important than the impressed view from far is the local impact of the programme and its importance for the people north of Ouagadougou. The infirmary, primary school and cultural events are testaments to a better world, that each of us can help to shape.
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I support the Operndorf Afrika, because I think it is important to offer free room to children and youth from all over the world, so that they can develop their creativity playfully.
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Um das Operndorf wirklich zu verstehen, muss man dieses Stück Land betreten haben. Ich war jedes Mal fasziniert, wie schnell einen dieser Ort in seinen Bann zieht. Christoph hat den kleinen, einsamen Hügel lange gesucht, er liegt denkbar abgelegen, 50 Kilometer außerhalb von Ouagadougou. Hier hat Christoph eine magische Spur gezogen oder hinterlassen, wohin diese Spur in Zukunft führen wird, ist im besten Sinne offen und riskant, aber schon jetzt haben hunderte von Kindern (und Eltern) und viele Besucher davon profitiert. Ich wünsche mir viele Spurensucher, die diesen Ort entdecken und auf ihre eigene Art nutzen. Dann ist das Dorf unverwüstlich.
”The Operndorf offers a unique opportunity to preserve and activate the legacy of Christoph Schlingensief. Though, there is a challenge: We could learn from Schlingensief on many occasions, that history only exists if there is a future. Consequently, the Operndorf has maybe less to do with Schlingensief’s past than with the future of his art.
”What an idea, of all things to take the most hermetic of all European art forms – the opera – as the starting point for an aid project: the Operndorf with school and hospital, which leaves the people in Africa, with the dignity to find an own way into the future, so that the continent, which we exploited, can return to itself. An educational site, also for us Europeans.
”Operndorf Afrika is the most brutal enlightenment possible. It’s the ultimate achievement.
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‘Hilf mir, es selbst zu tun denn:
Sage es mir und ich vergesse es
Zeige es mir und ich erinnere mich
lass es mich tun und ich behalte es.’
”15 years ago, on account of the refugee crisis – in the meantime a dominant issue – I established a foundation against xenophobia.
In my opinion, the most effective method to deal with this is to provide education to people in their homeland, without them being compelled to ‘flee’ and thereby to lose their culture.
That is why I have supported the Operndorf Afrika in Burkina Faso right from the outset and appreciate the enormous work and successes, which has been carried out and achieved there.
”Ferdinand von Schirach said on the occasion of a laudation:” Art is our greatest truth. And in the end, our only acquittal. “The theater is a place of protection and freedom in Burkina Faso, and the Operndorf is an integrative, cultural structure in the middle of an impassable nature. It offers in a sensitive manner support and orientation in a volatile social and socio-political environment. This is in my opinion aid for self-determination and thus constitutes true development aid. Added to this is the impressive strength of will and the perceivable force with which the small team carries the responsible legacy of Christoph Schlingensief into the future. This combined, spurs me as a mentor of the Operndorf.
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Durch die Errichtung und die Verwaltung von Telekommunikationsprojekten verbindet und befähigt MDIC Menschen und erweitert dadurch wirtschaftliche Möglichkeiten und Schlüsseldienste für Millionen Menschen in ganz Afrika. Wir stärken und fördern auch Initiativen, die Menschen durch den kulturellen und künstlerischen Austausch zusammenbringen. Das Operndorf Afrika hat diesen Austausch ermöglicht und wir freuen uns, seine Bemühungen zu unterstützen und Teil dieses Projekts zu sein.
”The Operndorf Afrika is a project in which art and life flow into each other. Similar to the entire work of Christoph Schlingensief, it can not be categorised. It is art, architecture, school and a development project – a place where everyone learns from each other.
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I learnt from Christoph Schlingensief that the process is just as much a work of art as the result. And he infected me, in particular, with the amazing, naïve belief that theatre, art can actually have some kind of effect. That’s why I support the Opera Village. Let’s fight for the unfinished, for the process, for the open and against the bottom line, the status quo and isolation.
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Three years ago I was confronted with this beautiful and most important project Operndorf Afrika. From the first moment on Operndorf Afrika forms for me the emotional answer on the many difficult questions of the amazing world we are living in. Especially for the Arts in the world this is a challenge for innovative and inspiring new streams to give the world off today the mirror they are longing for.
”I support the Operndorf Afrika because it promotes so much of what is wonderful at the same time – learning from each other, understanding each other, helping and healing – and because it provides hope when utopias gradually become reality.
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The Opera Village is a total work of art: it combines art and life. This was Christoph Schlingensief’s approach. The successfully managed school and the infirmary are just as much a part of the Opera Village, as the cultural programs, which are designed together with the Goethe Institute.
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As an artist, as a musician, one often wonders in his tunnel whether art, whether music, can really make a difference and can bring something real about. Whether something can emerge from an art-thought that changes reality. Not only metaphysically in our own bubble, not just as a feeling and theory, which is also a lot, but quite concrete and real-physical in the lives of other people. Operndorf Afrika says: YES!
”A place like the Operndorf Afrika, which is a place of encounter for all, is of great importance, not only in times of exclusion, xenophobia, conflict and fear – but always.
”Insofar as we continue to divide the world, we will always alienate and exclude and we will not have the opportunity to really and truly participate in really great things with other people, as I have experienced in my time in Burkina Faso.
We mourn, love, fear and laugh because we are human beings. The pictures of the children from Burkina Faso clearly show that there is only one world.
The reflection on the similarities holds great potential. Let us get to know each other. Let’s create our own impression.
”We need utopias to change the present. And utopias need places that give us the hope that the utopia can become an opportunity. Such a place is the Operndorf Afrika: A place of utopian possibility.
”As Christoph Schlingensief once said so aptly: “It can not be as beautiful as this in heaven!” Precisely this particular place far from the metropolises, which Christoph Schlingensief held so dear to the heart, must be supported.
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Maria Selgrad supported the Opera Village Africa with a generous donation. She was particularly concerned about the agricultural project, the planning of which was significantly advanced by her contribution.
”Operndorf Afrika is making it possible to develop a structure in Burkina Faso that directly helps the people living there and can open new perspectives for the future. That’s why I admire and support the project, so that we can hold onto this vision and carry it further.
”The Operndorf Afrika stands for the creation of meaning, in its pure sense. It is a place of encounter that provides people with the opportunity to unfold in a self-determined manner and to unleash their creativity. A great groundbreaking project – led by Aino Laberenz, whose heart burns for the Operndorf Afrika and whom I hold in high esteem.
”Operndorf Afrika is always faced with the challenge of a vision, to think about our future, to create an idea of freedom, and to create something which at the moment, situatively and also afterwards has a demonstrable meaning for many … For us, the Operndorf Afrika is a project that takes on this challenge. It is a place for common, political thought, for art, for education, for music, for cultural exchange. A place where encounters are created through art and where the meaning of art is once again thought over again!
”The Operndorf is the best example of how aid can work with the means of art. I wish that it will serve as an example for many initiatives and will have a great future.
”The Operndorf Afrika is a unique project that integrates education, health, but also art and culture and provides with us a new perspective on West Africa. I support this thought and approach of a culture, with regard and respect, as well as share the longing for something unknown to me, because far horizons have always been something that fascinated me.
”Beuys would be delighted: the Operndorf is like one of his lived social sculptures! It houses a school, a dental clinic, and a multi-creative place, in which the most diverse arts of pupils and neighbors take place. All areas are interwoven, open inwards and outwards; a small but powerful lighthouse of Africans in Africa, which illuminates against all fundamentalisms in the world!
”Christoph was a wonderful person whose Catholic beliefs I was always even able to pardon, as an atheist. His credo was the freedom of art, which was being more and more hemmed in in an increasing bureaucratized and commercially determined global operation. This is why he left for Africa, to create new impulses there. Many friends and Aino trod the same path up to the present. In particular, she deserves our greatest respect.
”The ‘Operndorf Afrika in Burkina Faso’ is the legacy that Christoph Schlingensief left us. It is in my opinion a beautiful and self-evident duty to contribute to the realisation of this legacy. And in Aino Laberenz, Christoph found the best and most committed ‘executor of the will’, who has long since succeeded in implementing what was initially only a hopeful idea. It is their merit that the Operndorf Afrika has today become a living, accepted oasis in a barren landscape and a poor country and a beacon of hope for a great future. This means alternating between play and learning, in order to enable children to have a successful schooling and a good future.
”The Operndorf is a heterotopia, “counter placement, abutment, actually realised utopia” (Michel Foucault), a place that sets itself apart from all others, sets standards, a model, a successful experiment, a work of art that even animates and inspires artists, and not a spaceship, but a piece of identity in Burkina Faso, lived home, a place of peace.
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Compassion paired with a social engagement and a sensibility for the arts are the most fundamental elements that can save the planet. This is why artists should support this amazing initiative by Christoph Schlingensief.
”I love the Operndorf Afrika, because in Burkina Faso are the mountains 4000 m and only an opera house can stand on the peak. And when the Ouagadougou symphony orchestra warbles for the first time, Bayreuth can pack its bags.
”Insofar as Burkina Faso is geographically remote from Germany, the more self evident was Christoph’s idea to erect an Operndorf there, including a school and an infirmary. His project deserves every form of support. Joseph Beuys too would have loved it.
”I support the Operndorf Afrika, because I am of the opinion that Aino Laberenz thereby continues to address the concerns of Christoph Schlingensief in an admirable way. A concern and a legacy through which we can learn how we want to live! There is only one world, let us welcome it together!
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We support the project, because it is based on partnership and exchange at eye level, thus providing the necessary foundations for a sustainable success.
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The Operndorf Afrika project is both equally an objective and a motivation for us. Objective, because as the Christoph-Schlingensief School, we absolutely want to travel to Burkina Faso at some time. Motivation, because it’s a real challenge for us and our pupils, through which we want to prove and can prove that there are no limits.
”I have experienced Christoph as an artist who became personal. Looked others in the eyes! Took note of pupils, the disabled, celebrities as people, artists, those who had failed, as well as the hopeful! As a pupil, he shot his first film. In the Operndorf he leaves behind the principle of hope. When I arrived at the Operndorf, I was very enthusiastic right from the first moment! Simply a good idea to follow, even if the opera has not been erected. But the classrooms of the school, the kitchen and the sanitary station have been erected; because we all have the desire that every child should have the possibility to eat normally and to be healthy, free to think and learn. The passion and enthusiasm of the whole team around Aino Laberenz, but also the perseverance to follow through with something so good and clear, should be an example for everyone! I was very impressed by the artistic exchange of Tobias Dostal and his 4-week film and camera project with the kids on site, the good idea of Philip Kojo Metz a conduct a drawing course with the children. Thankful for the beautiful conversations we had and for the lemon tree, which we were allowed to plant together with the caretaker and with the help of mainly sand, a little water and goat dung. Conclusion: People, please support this great project!
”The Operndorf Afrika is a beautiful village. It of course has a different climate and I remember it was very stormy. I have not been there, however I was in Namibia, in another house, where we painted not just the floor of the house but also the walls. The native Africans were very pleased. Perhaps the Opera House is now ready. I am curious about how many opera-goers will visit the Opera House.
”Christoph has positively changed our lives with ‘Via intolleranza II’, a production that was very closely linked to the Operndorf Afrika. With him, the dead are not dead. He is the wind I breathe, who keeps me on the leash and make dreams come true.
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WE FOUND THE DEAD RABBITS!
On a lonely red hill in the far distance in the once dearly won African continent, near Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, Christoph found his own holy grail after his long, tireless and sheer endless search. Here, in its red earth, as if animated, he planted all his inconstant thoughts and found a peace that he never thought existed.
A seed, sown in the far African continent, that was to give him and all of us refreshment. The search for the holy grail and the yearning for healing, Arthur’s Sir Gawain.
Together with all his tireless comrades-in-arms, particularly Thomas Goerge and Francis Kéré, he created REMDOOGO, “a place for the healing powers of art”.
I hope that this seed bears fruit and with the help of the work of Aino Laberenz, her team and all the actions of the other supporters and donors, this vision of his, of the Opera Village, grows, blossoms and bears fruit.
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The Operndorf represents a world governed by knowledge, curiosity,
hope, community and creativity. More than that, it is a place where
Christoph’s utopian vision has a very real, practical impact on the
daily lives of the people it touches. We are proud supporters of the
Operndorf and our wish is only that the village continues to grow and
to thrive.
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At last dreaming of maladjusted and perverse social castles in the air in the desert, sweating at eye level in the African motherland of peaceful revolution against secret corruption and western interferers, Sparking the enthusiasm of the young artists of tomorrow instead of collective Africa boredom on the sofa at home.
Who wouldn’t want to get involved with that?
”The core of Christoph Schlingensief’s vision of the Operndorf Afrika was the ‘other view’ – the other view of the world, the other view of a Europe that had become foreign to him, the other view of art and the art business. He wanted to be able to breathe freely again and this is what his Operndorf Afrika stood for.
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The opera village is a place that thrives on encounters. As an art project, it creates new opportunities and perspectives and helps local people in a targeted manner. All of these are good reasons for us to support this project as a matter of course
”I support the Operndorf Afrika because I want Christoph Schlingensief’s thinking and creative work to continue to radically shape and transform society, as it did during his lifetime. The Operndorf Afrika is more topical than ever in the sense of “social sculpture” because it encourages us to act mindfully and sustainably in our thinking and action, and makes it clear that every person is a creator of his life and therefore a liveable companion. Christoph Schlingensief’s project is the implementation of a modern utopia and it is thanks to the superhuman effort of Aino Laberence that he continues to have an effect. Fortunately, for all who are involved!
”For Christoph Schlingensief, this unique combination of art and life was a matter close to his heart, which we admire and gladly support. The children in the Operndorf Afrika experience a school education, with great influences from art and sciences. Young adults will emerge from it, who will contribute to the intercultural exchange between Europe and Africa.
”It seems so absurd when you hear of the Operndorf in Africa the first time. And then you realise how beautiful the whole thing is. Simply a great project.
”I support the Operndorf Afrika because for me, it’s the best example of growth. From the idea to a living, active place, a Utopia and totally real in the actual sense, a living fantasy, full of magic, but without spells, colourful and sparse at the same time. Lovingly extreme. Creating sense and nonsense, a stage for thoughts, school for the future, gardens full of seeds: a new path and a good example.
”Christoph Schlingensief was my first contact with the topic of art, during my teenage years..…I saw him live on TV in a talk-show discussion and thought “Wow, finally someone who shakes a leg and questions things and shows how to get things done”. I found the action “Tötet Helmut Kohl” awesome. It was so ambiguous and led a lot of people up the wrong path because they didn’t analyse closely what Christoph Schlingensief actually means by it….Operndorf Afrika speaks to me from the heart because I think that development aid can also look like this … I will continue to support the Operndorf Afrika….Aino is doing excellent work here and you can sense that it’s something that means a lot to her.
”“Help me to do it myself” then:
Tell me and I forget it
Show it to me and I remember
Let me do it and I’ll retain it.
Maria Montessori
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I’ve known the Opera Village Africa art project from the start, I think it’s great and appreciate the programme as well as the involvement of the initiators and those involved very much. It is a joy to me to support this amazing project.
”Through building and managing telecom projects, MDIC connects and empowers people, thus extending economic opportunities and key services to millions across Africa. We, as well, encourage and promote initiatives that bring people together through cultural and artistic exchanges. Operndorf Afrika has enabled such exchanges and we are pleased to support their efforts and be part of this project.
”Christoph Schlingensief was concerned about the relationship among the people and the social energies that are thereby released. The Operndorf Afrika initiated by him in Burkina Faso is his legacy. It shows the consistency and radicalism with which Schlingensief conceived art as a free space and tool. His approach namely goes far beyond the usual merging of art and life. It is an experiment whose effect will only be apparent in decades. However the unconditional belief in the power of art, which has driven Schlingensief and which is continued by Aino Laberenz, should make us all become supporters of his vision.
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Initiating the cooperation between my university and Schlingensief‘s Operndorf Afrika in Burkina Faso was something that was close to my heart because Schlingensief‘s death has left behind and unmeasurable hole in our society. We must remember his questions and his work and live it. The students at the Robert Schumann Hochschule are doing that in their projects in the Operndorf Afrika. And I have to constantly remind myself, for instance, that there are no solutions and we’ll still carry on failing, but just in a more beautiful way.
”Our foundation cares deeply about environmental protection, sustainability and education for children alike, and we are pleased to support the school garden project of the Opera Village.
”The Operndorf is a project that arouses hope – hope that there can be a relationship between Europe and Africa, which is based on reciprocity and not on dominance. Hope that culture can contribute to the development of children and the development of a country. The Operndorf is a hope village.
”I gladly support the Operndorf Afrika project with full conviction. This company, which was courageously launched by Christoph Schlingensief and Aino Laberenz, is decisively participating in the development of structures in Burkina Faso that directly help people on the ground, especially the children, and opens up prospects for the future. A decisive measure is the inclusion of regional building traditions, local materials and traditional craft. The school and hospital, which have been created in the hitherto realised construction phases, in cooperation with the state authorities, also serve to facilitate the expansion of civil responsibility. A regular cultural program – music, theatre, film, etc. – strengthens the cultural identity of the region. For the planned further development, I wish to see strong support from the private as well as from the official side.
The pressing concern for the problems in Africa is counteracted by way of example with the Operndorf Afrika Project.
”What is special about the Operndorf Afrika is the fact that it lives. It lives from encounters, exchanges, experiments, the artistic debate, but also from the everyday, the art of survival. Continuously grown over many years, it combines life with art and vice versa. The ‘dreamland’, the vision of Christoph Schlingensief, is a reality. Every single day! This is something special in itself.
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Schlingensief’s Operndorf Afrika is a universal stage, in which living and learning, art and community are inseparably melded. Schlingensief’s whole theatrical concept is poured into one grandiose construction work – in ingenuous collaboration with the architect Diébédo Francis Kéré.
”People should carry on donating to the Opera Village so that it can progress. So that the pupils there can all learn – and have something to eat, that’s what matters! Please carry on supporting it!
”We support the project, because it is based on partnership and exchange at eye level, thus providing the necessary foundations for a sustainable success.
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Christoph Schlingensief’s move to Africa was totally consistent. There he could rid himself of something, get something going, but his boundaries were clearly recognisable to him, already just the language, the other culture were barriers to communication. Suddenly only more trust was possible. Suddenly only wonder was possible. He created something and in doing this, he got something moving. And he demonstrated in a wonderful way that mountains could be moved with artistic thinking and action and discoveries took place that grant our own egos and the other person’s mastery, that defends itself, can soar up, can even be.
”ART is always Total LOVE.
The Operndorf Afrika is only love.
Love is always art.
The Operndorf Afrika must constitute an affectionate overall work of art.
ART is not an ideology, never, fortunately!
Only art is FUTURE.
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AN OPERNDORF IN AFRICA, this paradoxical, wonderful ‘crazy’ idea by Christoph Schlingensief, pleased us right from the outset. And what many doubted: It indeed filled itself with life, lived on after Christoph’s untimely death, and survived through the great commitment of Aino, and many named and unnamed.
We will continue to support this unique project with all our heart, such that it continues to live.
”To truly understand the Operndorf Afrika, you have to enter this piece of land. I was each and every time fascinated, on how quickly this place leaves one spellbound. Christoph searched for the small, lonely hill for a long time, it is conceivably remotely located, 50 kilometres outside of Ouagadougou. This is where Christoph has drawn or left behind a magic trace. Where this trace will lead to in the future, is open and risky in the best sense, but already hundreds of children (and parents) and many visitors have benefited from it. I would wish to see many trace searchers, who discover this place and use in their own way. Then the Operndorf Afrika is indestructible.
”Culture is one of the most important social principles in Burkina Faso. This is why it’s all the more essential to promote the Opera Village with all its range of tasks and offers as an active place and centre of cultural exchange and to develop it further– and to press ahead with Schlingensief’s idea and make it viable for the future.
”For me, the mammoth project Operndorf stands for far more than a large building full of great, miraculous ideas and people. For me, the Operndorf is above all an idea that can not be understood either temporally or spatially, or exactly described, because what is expressed in it is beyond its materiality, even beyond life itself. Perhaps that would be the perfect utopia for the big picture: the world must become an Operndorf!
”The Operndorf Afrika is a total work of art: it combines art and life. This was Christoph Schlingensief’s approach. The successfully managed school and the infirmary are just as much a part of the Operndorf Afrika, as the cultural programs, which are designed together with the Goethe Institute.
”The Operndorf Afrika Project was born out of enthusiasm and certainly less professional and much more improvised than many other aid projects, but it is precisely this human spirit inherent in it and that moreover also works at eye level together with the people on site, which makes the Operndorf Afrika precisely the kind of aid project that I would like to support.
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The Opendorf is the ideal which was missing to the development of youth through the arts. It’s a setting of waking and awakening for the children and the young. It’s a setting which enables youth to understand that the potential surrounding them can always be enriched.
”The Operndorf Afrika is a place near Ouagadougou; it is a place in my head, a place of encounter, and a place of reflection. The Operndorf Afrika occupies places, it grows, it is rooted and networked, it is infected by the idea of art and in turn, on its part, injects the idea of art.
”Operndorf Afrika is comprehensive — a gesture, a sign, a call to action and at the same time already result and added value. The opera as inspiration, freed from an elite space, as that which it is supposed to depict: joy in music, joy at the stage, joy in performing.
”For me, the wonderful thing about the idea of this Operndorf in Africa is that it provides perfect freedom for those who work there – for amusing madness or strict political art, for a clever declaration of the world, or for absolutely purposeless, useless, passionate play.
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”Sometime, maybe in a year, maybe even only in 10 or 20 years, there will be a pupil at the Operndorf Afrika in Burkina Faso who asks: Christoph Schlingensief, who was that person anyhow, who founded this school and the infirmary? What kind of person was that? What motivated him? What was his art like? And he/she will start looking into Schlingensief’s work and life and work his/her way through the 100 DVDs that document everything, discovering things and having experiences that he/she would never have thought possible. And then this pupil, once he/she has grown up, coming from this village called Remdogo, in complete autonomy and at the same time full of dedication to his/her collective, will create an aesthetic and political space of synthesis and blurring of boundaries, in which the ascending culture of Africa and the declining European civilisation meet each other. And this meeting will give rise to art events such that the world has never seen and which nobody today could imagine. That could still take time. But I reckon that it’s very likely.
”Mid-90s, I was able to work for the first time with Christoph. We met again when he was fighting for his Operndorf and much more. This fight also continues.
”
If you see the film in which Christoph Schlingensief walks through the red desert and is sure: “This is the perfect place for our opera”, if you listening to Aino with what strength and courage she realized the project and brings it forward, if you look at the people in Burkina Faso in interviews, streams and movies as they develop the Operndorf Afrika and bring this crazy idea to life, then you realize that here was a utopia brought to reality that one must absolutely love and support.
”The “Operndorf in Burkina Faso” is a unique project: the vision of an intercultural exchange between Europe and Africa that Christoph Schlingensief brought to life. Schlingensief went beyond all boundaries in his lifetime. His conception of art is a legacy that must be fulfilled. For his idea, he spared no effort. His commitment was honest; It challenges us. That is why the development of the Operndorf is a personal concern for us, so that we can also break down boundaries in the future and make art capable of being experienced in a special way.
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Anyone who, like me, lost his heart more than 30 years ago to Africa and music can’t avoid being connected to such an amazing project as Christoph Schlingensief’s Operndorf Afrika. I don’t know of any other comparable project that connects both together in the same way.
”Who ever has once visited Operndorf Afrika, which is situated deep in the countryside, where there is essentially nothing (except for a lot of red soil and isolated villages, whose tribal princes often clash with one another), whoever has seen the pupils, who would have otherwise had no opportunity to visit a school (simply because no other school exists far and wide) as well as learn how to read and write in Operndorf Afrika (Burkina Faso has the second highest literacy rate in the world), which also includes basic arithmetic and whatever else belongs to a proper education, and where by they are moreover also provided with the means and space to express themselves creatively, can not even for a single second doubt whether the whole is a meaningful project. The Operndorf Afrika is not ‘well-intentioned’ – it is for many people the only chance for a freely defined life, especially for the girls of the area, where access to education normally remains closed.
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The ” Operndorf Afrika in Burkina Faso” is the legacy that Christoph Schlingensief left us. It is in my opinion a beautiful and self-evident duty to contribute to the realisation of this legacy. And in Aino Laberenz, Christoph found the best and most committed “executor of the will”, who has long since succeeded in implementing what was initially only a hopeful idea. It is their merit that the Operndorf Afrika has today become a living, accepted oasis in a barren landscape and a poor country and a beacon of hope for a great future. This means alternating between play and learning, in order to enable children to have a successful schooling and a good future.
”The Operndorf Afrika teaches us not to give up what we believe in. Even if the entire world declares us crazy! This village, where 250 children learn today, is a triumph of will and humanity. A place that serves as source of courage when things become difficult.
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Was Christoph Schlingensief the last representative of a country of other ideas about the other? He was interested in the unknown that triggers fear and at the same time curiosity, in the field of conflict with the feeling of home.
”Africa must become self-reliant. This is only achievable through education. The Operndorf offers ideal conditions and a program in which children learn to dream of the future.
”I feel familiar with Operndorf Afrika through its everyday sounds: the distant toll of nature’s bells, the reverberating sounds of children taking classes and the pounding of new classrooms being built, all chiming simultaneously and inseparably. Operndorf is a habitat for farsighted vision and sustained action, where the progressive present and future perfect tenses coexist in the now.
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Schlingensief’s Operndorf Afrika is a universal stage, in which living and learning, art and community are inseparably melded. Schlingensief’s whole theatrical concept is poured into one grandiose construction work – in ingenuous collaboration with the architect Diébédo Francis Kéré.
”I love the Operndorf Afrika, because in Burkina Faso are the mountains 4000 m and only an opera house can stand on the peak. And when the Ouagadougou symphony orchestra warbles for the first time, Bayreuth can pack its bags.
”Culture is one of the most important social principles in Burkina Faso. This is why it’s all the more essential to promote the Opera Village with all its range of tasks and offers as an active place and centre of cultural exchange and to develop it further– and to press ahead with Schlingensief’s idea and make it viable for the future.
”The ‘Operndorf Afrika in Burkina Faso’ is the legacy that Christoph Schlingensief left us. It is in my opinion a beautiful and self-evident duty to contribute to the realisation of this legacy. And in Aino Laberenz, Christoph found the best and most committed ‘executor of the will’, who has long since succeeded in implementing what was initially only a hopeful idea. It is their merit that the Operndorf Afrika has today become a living, accepted oasis in a barren landscape and a poor country and a beacon of hope for a great future. This means alternating between play and learning, in order to enable children to have a successful schooling and a good future.
”“Help me to do it myself” then:
Tell me and I forget it
Show it to me and I remember
Let me do it and I’ll retain it.
Maria Montessori
”The Operndorf is a project that arouses hope – hope that there can be a relationship between Europe and Africa, which is based on reciprocity and not on dominance. Hope that culture can contribute to the development of children and the development of a country. The Operndorf is a hope village.
”