Teaching and Learning Sustainable Development Goals through the power of Images from 4th -11th March 2023.Goals

Agenda 2030 on SDG 4, Quality Education

• Equal access to education for all
• Access to early childhood education that prepares for elementary school.
• All girls and boys to complete free, equitable, and quality primary and secondary education.
• Access to quality vocational education and higher education.
• More youth and adults to have skills for employment and decent jobs.
• All youth and a large proportion of adults to attain literacy and numeracy skills.
• All learners to acquire skills for promoting sustainable development.

Museum as an educational institution

"The Federal Government is committed to making inclusive learning a matter of course in Germany. Kindergartens and day-care centres, schools, universities and institutions of further education should focus on and support all people in their uniqueness and with their individual needs from the very beginning."

Only if museums achieve this goal, which is set out in the "National Action Plan of the Federal Government implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities". the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, they can continue to be they can continue to be perceived as important educational institutions.

Source: Das inklusive Museum – Ein Leitfaden zu Barrierefreiheit und Inklusion Herausgeber: Deutscher Museumsbund e. V., Bundesverband Museumspädagogik e. V. und Bundeskompetenzzentrum Barrierefreiheit e. V.

Diane Victor

Firebringer, 2016

The gateway to Wölfelstraße opens up the staircase and thus the entrances to the offices on the second and third floors of the Iwalewahaus. On the glass surface of the door's narrow side panel, which usually remains firmly locked, South African artist Diane Victor has painted a delicate depiction with candle smoke: The Firebringer.

Fire-bearers are not uncommon in the cityscape of Johannesburg. The braziers carried on their heads are needed to prepare food that is sold locally to workers and passers-by.

The face of a woman is visible in the window. She is balancing the smoking brazier on her head. A board and her headscarf protect her from the heat.

Diane Victor writes: "Because the candle-smoke image was applied to the window surface of the entrance door, it is only perceived when the viewer looks out of the building towards the city, or into the building from outside. In this way, the fire bearer tries to mediate between the boundaries of these two different worlds. This could be a paraphrase for the differences between South Africa and Germany, socially and culturally. Here (in Bayreuth), the fire bearer is also taken completely out of her actual cultural environment, just like the entire collection in the Iwalewahaus. In a figurative sense, it is the fire bearers who bring light, enlightenment and change into society. Many mythologies tell of the brave heroes or sorcerers who take great risks to carry the fire and light to the people. In this case, the hero is a simple woman with a strong neck and robust constitution".

Middle Art

Augustin Okoye had a small studio for sign painting in a town in south-western Nigeria. There he was discovered by Ulli Beier, who was enthusiastic about the imaginative and colourful wooden signs. Okoye gave himself the name Middle Art as his artist's name. There are several of his works in the Iwalewa House. They tell of personalities and everyday events. Some paintings also tell of the terrible war experiences Augustin Okoye had to go through as a soldier.

In the painting we meet a successful businessman and politician. He faces the viewer in a pinstripe suit, his white shirt buttoned up and with an accurate tie knot. A handkerchief in the left breast pocket of his jacket, his left hand casually in his trouser pocket, his raised right hand appears to be resting on the left picture frame. Mr Nwobodo is a man in his early 40s and he has made it. The gesture he makes with his right hand is meant to emphasise this: The thumb points upwards, the other fingers are closed. OK, I have everything under control - that is what this picture is supposed to convey to us.

Mr Nwobodo is standing opposite us. He directs his professional smile with his eyes towards an imaginary counterpart to the right of the viewer. The portrait of high-ranking politicians is one of the oldest traditional forms of representation in the visual arts. In the portrait of a ruler, different characteristics can be emphasised. Power, superiority, strength, creative will, intransigence, wealth, divinity - pictorial formulas were developed for all of these. The raised thumb is a fairly recent development. Some of today's politicians make extensive use of this gesture.

Jim Nwobodo had every reason to be optimistic when the picture was painted. At just 40, he can look back on a career full of riches and political glory. As governor of Anambra State, he held office for four years. A military coup in 1983 also meant the temporary end of Nwobodo's rise with dramatic consequences. However, he remained in politics and, among other things, ran unsuccessfully as a presidential candidate in Nigeria in 2003.

Obou Gbais

Boogie-Woogie: Pour la liberté

Spray paint and acrylic, 2021

In the summer of 2021, Obou Gbais was the first artist the Iwalewahaus welcomed as a guest after the long break of the lockdown. With a large mural in the courtyard, the painter and musician captured the upbeat atmosphere he encountered in Bayreuth. About 50 dancers are described on about 30 square metres. Some are depicted in joyful movement. Some appear pensive and look at the viewer with a pensive gaze. Again and again, legs and arms protrude from the throng of figures. It is a great celebration.

The unity of the crowd is emphasised by the staggered structure of the picture. Obou Gbais has refrained from foreshortening the perspective. In this way, all the figures appear to be the same size and are given the same amount of picture space. Another feature is the special depiction of the faces. Obou Gbais gives all the dancers the features of masks. Masks have a long tradition in Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia. Among others, they are worn by the Yakuba-Dan ethnic group during ritual dances.

Boogie-woogie is a musical style and a dance that has developed in the USA since the end of the 19th century. Originally it has its roots in the blues. It became widespread during the swing jazz era. Many boogie-woogie elements were adopted by new dance styles such as rock 'n roll. The origin of the word boogie refers to the African roots of the dance.

With the mural Boogie-Woogie: Pour la liberté, Obou Gbais has created a monument to the ideal of freedom. Of course, everyday life at the Iwalewa House does not consist only of cheerful and exhilarating celebrations. Obou Gbais' description is all the more apt, as it does not only consist of exuberance. Here, everyone can find themselves under a common motto: Pour la liberté.

Sam Hopkins

Dead insects in my parents pool

Installation, Iwalewahaus, 2015

Sam Hopkins is an artist and curator from Nairobi, Kenya. In 2015 he oversaw a project at the Iwlewa House that focused on opening up the archive. The archive at the Iwlewahaus is normally only used by academics. Sam Hopkins wants the sources of an institution like the Iwlewahaus to be available to a wider public. Participation is an important keyword for his work. Participation in knowledge and culture is what he is committed to at the Iwalewahaus.

The installation "Dead insects in my parents' swimming pool" consists of 49 small square light boxes, each with a photograph. They are beetles and flying insects floating on water, drowned in the swimming pool referred to in the title. At first glance, they look almost like scientific specimens. They are not surrounded by plants or nature and seem carefully and obviously composed.

The title leads us to the history of the installation. In Kenya, Sam Hopkins' home country, many people have difficult access to drinking water. Yet even here there are people who have enough water to fill a large basin with. Sam Hopkins does not work with the images shown in the press to draw attention to this problem. It is not a narrative of poverty and wealth in stark contrast. Instead, it is a look at a seemingly inconsequential detail that he magnifies.

Sam Hopkins says: "Are these documentary photographs? On the one hand, I would say yes; they are the result of careful observation of an environment. And they are images that document very specific dimensions of this world. On the other hand, the relationship between these images and the history they refer to is not so clear-cut."