Backpacking Tales

Four illustrators - two from the Arab world, two from an European context - gather to illustrate and design a bilingual collection of six fairy tales of Palestinian tradition. Each illustrator will contribute to it in an individual and collaborative way. They do not illustrate one story each, but they will work together, exchange working techniques and styles and create an own concept for each story and the whole book. Together with the pedagogical editor, the learning process of the artists will be transferred into creativity workshops with children and school classes. Free story-telling, imagining and illustrating within a common dialogue are the main features of these educative lessons. By that, the intercultural artistic workshops in Cairo and Berlin contribute directly to the publication that comes together with additional educational material and an audio book. It can be used as further teaching material and source for language or art courses, creativity and storyteller workshops.

The project aims to convey the power of narrated stories and the imagery of Arabic fairy tales as intercultural invention and cross-border vehicle, especially in light of children´s education. The cooperation between the four illustrators incorporates besides the actual drawing process a discussion on artistic and cultural pre-conditions of their work, and was followed by workshops in school classes in Cairo and Berlin that go beyond the simple hierarchic story telling-listener scheme. The children are enhanced to become creative and sensibilized for realities and images of other cultures. Due to the fact, that "Backpacking Tales" is embedded into a pedagogical framework consisting of educational introduction to the realm of fairy tales, educational assistance and working methods. it is a project that works perfectly in schools, language or art classes, and gives the teaching staff tools to establish future workshops and lessons. Secondly, the book can be read out loud and quiet by parents and children alike. Furthermore, the beautiful drawn and designed images will draw attention of people who are affiliated with art and illustration and/or interested in the rich Arabic culture, stories, and art.

The book will be the result of a one-year experience by all the participants of the share views and ideas on pictures and images for education material based around a book of illustrated bi-lingual fairy tales and pedagogical material. Stories, the evoked phantasy and the art of narrating stories beyond the own borders of language and images are essential for mutual correspondence and meeting of other people as well as to feel empathy and acceptance towards them. The enchanting, witty and creative illustrations, that go along the still-unknown stories, are the outcome of an intercultural and artistic dialogue that sheds light on possible ways of imagining the portrayed fairy tales’ world. By this, it is an offer to thread and (re-)invent own, new and alternative stories, images and narratives – a cultural resource that, today, is certainly needed more than ever.

With your contribution the project phase can be finished and leads directly into the production of the artistic result.
The financial support will be used for the editing and the printing costs to have the first printing run as well as the encompassing pedagogical material (including the audio book) produced. This includes the costs for the editing of the colourful book and the printing costs. Planned printing date is November 1st, 2017, the delivery start from December 1st, 2017.