© Hilka Baumann / Universität Bremen
Cine Walk Through Bremen
An audio-visual walking route addresses the topic of film and mental health.
Students of Art – Media – Aesthetic Education wanted to curate a film series concerning illness – what resulted is a corona-conform cine walk around the Stadtwerder district, which fits with the pandemic. An app with podcasts and activities to join in leads you to the various stations and teaches you about the different aspects of the topic. You can then listen to the connected episode there.
Turquoise chairs and TV installations marks the individual stations between the Weserburg gallery and Café Sand. Not all passersby immediately recognize them as being audio stations. Next to the Kinderwildnis play area, a woman explains to her astonished grandchild that she used to have such a TV. Once she’s aware of the cine walk, she straight away saves the QR code on the device, which points to the project.
Using the Actionbound app, all persons who are interested can download the cine walk onto their device for free. With one click on a certain topic, you’re shown the station on a map. In addition to the audio contributions concerning film music, artificial intelligence, thumb cinema, sky spaces, and urban gardening, there are also further film tips that intend to make you think about mental health.
© Hilka Baumann / Universität Bremen
“Curating Illness” Project Seminar
Tobias Dietrich supervised the project as the lecturer. He lectures in the field of film studies and film education at the Institute for Art History - Film Studies - Art Education at the University of Bremen and is also a freelance film curator. After having completed his degree in art history and public health, as well as art and culture mediation, he placed his focus on film aesthetics and health.
“The ‘Curating Illness’ project seminar was initially planned together with CITY46 for the week of mental health in October 2020,” explains Tobias Dietrich. However, much like many other things in the summer semester, it didn’t go according to plan due to corona. “We needed to spontaneously re-plan. The students thought of the new format by themselves,” he adds.
The first weeks were quite wild remembers seminar participant Sören Gäting: “Should we just project our film series onto the Kunsthalle gallery and basically open our own open-air cinema? Or rather walk the streets with our projector and surprise passerby with our films? It was an immense challenge to develop something together in a big group that can also be changed to fit to new findings and the resulting measures.”
Visible Seminar Results
Instead of with the planned film series, the students used the skills in the field of film curation that they learnt in the seminar to present the self-designed cine walk to the public. The format offers a diverse, corona-conform offer, also for those people that are suffering due to the current restrictions. The interactive, audio-visual walk invites you to go outside, step away from the feeling of isolation, and brings variety into your life.
A great deal of positive feedback has already been received via the guestbooks that are available at several stations.
So, keep your eyes peeled on your next walk – have a listen and take a look!
More Information
Those who are interested, can find the tour under the term “Cinewalk Bremen” in the Actionbound app, which can be downloaded free of charge. It is recommended that you fully download the contents at home so that they can be used independently of networks.
The Instagram channel @cinewalk.bremen offers further project insights.
