The "Kofferkind" exhibition at the Social Innovation Lab has so far enjoyed a consistently high number of visitors, including one group of Ludwigshafen residents who were particularly present: citizens aged 60 and over, who found themselves in the "Kofferkind" theme with their personal biographical experiences. As children in the 60s and 70s, they were left behind in Turkey or Italy with grandparents, aunts and uncles or even neighbors until their parents brought them to Ludwigshafen - often years later.
Accordingly, the expert discussion on 22 March 2024 entitled "Forgotten children - pedagogical and political implications" was very well attended and characterized by an emotional exchange that was always also touching . Central results of the discussion between artistic examination and scientific classification:
- A number of visitors, who themselves experienced being a "Kofferkind" in their childhood, only became aware through the exhibition that this was not an individual experience, but a collective experience of the generation of guest worker children. We would like to thank the artist Fatma Biber-Born for expressing this experience in her drawings. The particular value of this exhibition lies in being able to conceptualize the experience of abandonment, to make it tangible, to understand it in its historical and social context and to be able to discuss it.
- "Suitcase children" are not a historically closed phenomenon of the first generation of guest workers, but such fates are produced anew every day today - and not only when families are torn apart by the dramatic cause of flight from war , but also when Eastern European care workers work in Germany for weeks and months, leaving their children behind in their home country. From this perspective, questions regarding family immigration must be politically reconsidered.
- There is an urgent need for appropriately trained specialists for daycare centers and schools who are able to provide appropriate educational support for children with such experiences.
- A city like Ludwigshafen needs so-called "third places", such as the Social Innovation Lab: A low-threshold, socio-cultural, artistic and/or scientifically prepared offer focused on topics of urban society, a place where citizens can come together and deal with topics that are significant for their community.
The exhibition "Kofferkinder" can be seen in the university's Social Innovation Lab until 14.04.2024: SoiL, Bismarckstr. 55, 67059 Ludwigshafen. Special highlights of the program in the finissage week:
- Thursday, April 11, 2024, 2:30 pm
SoiL, Bismarckstr. 55, 67059 Ludwigshafen
Info & Tea Special of the International Women's Meeting
Children Left Behind - The Perspective of Women and Mothers - Saturday, April 13, 2024, 5 p.m.
SoiL (Social Innovation Lab of the University of Applied Sciences for Society and Economics), Bismarckstr. 55, 67059 Ludwigshafen
Film & Talk: KOFFERKINDER - Szenen einer Migration
Feature film, 2023
Followed by a talk with the director Nikiforidis Grigorios and co-producers Eleni Nikiforidou and Efthimios Papachristos
Four parallel stories tell the story of Greek immigration in Nuremberg over the last 50 years.
