My Ocean Challenge at the Deichtorhallen Hamburg
by Team Malizia 10 Sep 2023 01:50 AEST
Over 600 little sails created by children in the Malizia Ocean Challenge programme during The Ocean Race have come together in a large art installation exhibited at the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg © Team Malizia
Team Malizia and the Deichtorhallen opened the "Make Climate Change Visible - Sailing Around The World With Team Malizia" student exhibition in Hamburg. The artwork was created as part of the My Ocean Challenge education programme with children from 9 countries at each stage of The Ocean Race 2022-2023.
Hamburg, 8 September 2023 - During the 6 months of The Ocean Race, Boris Herrmann's Team Malizia pushed their yacht around the globe on one of the toughest offshore races, clinching a podium finish. The team brought the adventure of sailing closer to hundreds of thousands of fans, documented the exciting race extensively and authentically, and, as they have done for many years, collected rare Ocean CO2 data for marine scientists to better understand the role of the Ocean in climate change. But one of the most exciting projects for Boris Herrmann, Birte Lorenzen-Herrmann and Team Malizia is the work during the race with their My Ocean Challenge educational programme which involved students around the world, and which now exhibited in the shape of a collective artwork at the Deichtorhallen Hamburg.
Team Malizia worked with children from local schools at each stopover of The Ocean Race on the topics of Ocean and climate change. Motivated and inspired by the adventure of sailing and by art, the school children dealt intensively with scientific aspects, processed and reflected on what they had experienced, became active and made climate change visible in small artworks.
"We want to create hope and show solutions with our programme," explains Birte Lorenzen-Herrmann, who developed the programme several years ago together with skipper Boris Herrmann. "Each participating child created a 'Wish for the Ocean' on a piece of paper shaped like a little sail. Over 600 artworks were created by children from Alicante (Spain), Mindelo (Cape Verde), Cape Town (South Africa), Itajaí (Brazil), Newport (USA), Aarhus (Denmark), Kiel (Germany), The Hague (Netherlands), and Genoa (Italy). In Hamburg, children from the Sternschanze primary school, the Niendorf district school, and the Stellingen district school also took part in workshops at the Deichtorhallen. We also worked at the Zeitz MOCAA Museum in Cape Town, among other places. It was really exciting to work on these topics with children from many different countries."
The children also wrote their "good wishes" for the class of the next stopover in a small book that sailed around the world onboard the Malizia - Seaexplorer race yacht. Children from Africa, for example, dealt with the effects of climate change in Brazil and sent their wishes across the Ocean. Skipper Boris Herrmann said: "It was so nice to have this little book onboard, saved in a dry space, like a treasure we needed to protect. With the crew, we opened it a few times when we were racing to look at the messages the children had written. It was really heartwarming to read the wishes written by the children and to deliver them to the kids at the next stopover."
The over 600 artworks created around the world during The Ocean Race were brought back to Hamburg after the race and have been assembled in a very large, collective art piece exhibited at the Deichtorhallen Hamburg. Yesterday afternoon, the "Make Climate Change Visible - Sailing Around The World With Team Malizia" art installation was open at the Deichtorhallen Hamburg, with the participating children and teachers coming together through a Zoom call. Skipper Boris Herrmann attended the call from France, where he is currently training. During the call which saw, amongst others, children from Brazil, Spain, Germany, and Cabo Verde come together, the team showed a film documenting the creation process of the artwork and a video revealing the final installation. Participating team members and children shared their experience and what they enjoyed the most in this project, and after the call, the audience in Hamburg enjoyed a guided tour of the installation by Birte Lorenzen-Herrmann.
"We are delighted to be part of the My Ocean Challenge initiative, which combines sailing, science, education and art to educate, inspire and connect children around the Ocean and climate change," explains Dirk Luckow, Artistic Director of Deichtorhallen Hamburg. "Climate change is a global challenge and has no borders - just like art! That is why we are trying to create these connections."
Part of the exhibition is also an interactive poster exhibition on the climate crisis "We've got the Chance to change!" by the Max Planck School Kiel, which was conceived with scientific support from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, a long-term scientific partner of Team Malizia.
"I find the "My Ocean Challenge" programme so convincing because it makes school children aware of the ecological importance of the Ocean in a very vivid and understandable way," adds Dorit Otto, Chairman of the Board Dorit & Alexander Otto Stiftung, which supports Team Malizia's educational programme. "Sailing is a teaching tool that can be used to inspire young people for climate protection. In addition, Birte Lorenzen-Herrmann's team transports this educational idea beyond Hamburg's schools to school classes all over the world, so to speak, by sailing boat. My Ocean Challenge picks up on our foundation's key funding themes, which is why I am very pleased about our cooperation."
The students' works will be exhibited in the gallery corridor of the Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, from 7 September 2023 to the end of September 2023. The exhibition is curated by the art programme of the Staddteilschule Stellingen under the direction of teacher Christina Rust and in collaboration with artist Sabine Flunker.