Damaskuserlebnis by Luise Charlotte Klett
Damaskuserlebnis (“Damascus experience”) is a student work made at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, presenting a collection of diverse contributions related to the country of Syria. Fifteen contributors offer insight into their very personal Syria between the years 1953 and 2022. The intention of this work is to sensitize our society to different cultural contexts in terms of integration and unbiased communication. It is intended to encourage people to become active, to profess values and to stand up for one another. I see my role as a designer as creating visibility, with the help of thoughtful design. Design that informs and collaborates with others to create a something new.
In the past, as today, people all over the world leave their homes behind in search of a new future. The numbers of people fleeing are constantly increasing and for this reason it is important to have an extraverted interaction with each other and to create spaces for common discourse. If we read something about Syria today: then mostly in connection with war, suffering and torture. From the stories of my grandparents and and other persons with a contribution in the book, I know that Syria was and still is much more. My grandfather, for example, described Syria as a colorful, open, joyful country with thousands of smells and sounds. A place of friendship and great hospitality, work and progress. My motivation for this work is also to show the positive sides of the Middle East. Nevertheless, it is of great importance to understand how it could come to the current situation in Syria.
The book was published in cooperation with the Lucia Verlag and Wortschatz. The price of the book is composed of the production costs and a donation which will go to the association Wortschatz – Netzwerk Welcome Weimar. This network is a language workshop, viewing itself as a dynamic low-threshold offer to improve one’s own language together and to learn from and with each other.
The Bachelor thesis was supervised by Junior-Prof. Stefanie Schwarz and Dipl.-Des. Stefan Guzy, Department of Visual Communication Faculty of Art and Design Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.
Damaskuserlebnis is a thread-sewn brochure with 104 pages, measuring 16.5×23.5×1 cm. It was digitally printed on 270 gsm Symbol Card and 120 gsm Lona Offset by DZA Druckerei zu Altenburg who also took care of the OTA binding. The book is available from do you read me?! Berlin. ISBN 978–3–945301–55–5
Find more information in an article about Damaskuserlebnis by Slanted.
