Can creative disciplines promote cohesion within society? How can you communicate without language? Is it possible to develop a deeper understanding for another culture by simply learning a traditional textile handicraft technology?
The project “Talk to Strangers” by fashion designer Cina Dilber is dedicated to these questions in cooperation with the EMMA – Creative Centre Pforzheim. “Talk to Strangers” is an encouragement to communicate and cooperate with the foreign.
“Talk to Strangers” creates meeting spaces in which cultural assets can be brought into exchange, independently of language. Implicit knowledge in the form of textile handicraft techniques are passed on, so a dialogue far away from language barriers is made possible. At the same time, “Talk to Strangers” is the search for a contemporary design strategy, which puts the human being in the focus: Design through people, with people, by people and for people.

More information:
www.talktostrangers.de

In order to create the quarter on the north bank of the Enz between the EMMA-Creative Centre and the A.K.T; the planning office of the city of Pforzheim in cooperation with the EMMA-Creative Centre brought to life a design competition under the motto “Nimm Platz” in 2019. The participants had two months to develop a draft to create an extraordinary seating furniture. The following criteria counted: creative design, feasibility and the functional concept. As basic material only larch wood planks can be used. A total of ten groups of applicants submitted their designs and presented to the Jury at the EMMA-Creative Centre. The jury was composed of Marc Tell Feltl from the Department of Planning, Building, Environment and Culture, Head of EMMA – Creative Centre Almut Benkert, competition coordinator Christina Gegner (Planning Office), Shameet Ghelani (Planning Office), Vice Dean of the Faculty of Design at Pforzheim University Matthias Kohlmann and master carpenter Michael Baumann. The winner was the team around the Pforzheimer Verein Leerstand als Freiraum e. V. with the 25-year-old German teacher Theo Ferrera Gomes and Fabian Faylona with their project “Der Roland-Müller-Platz”. Working together and with high process quality with students of the Carlo-Schmid-School and Students of Pforzheim University, they developed a mature conceptand thus be able to convince the jury. Especially the multifunctionality of the different modules and the detailed design of the construction were decisive for the victory. In a workshop week in March 2019, the winning team built the individual elements and finally presented to the public at the Quartiersfest at the Enz on May 12, 2019.