THE TEAM

Shelley Sacks

Overall creation and curating of Kassel21-Social Sculpture Lab; Survival Room and Enquiry Labs; facilitation of connective practice strategy groups

Social sculpture practitioner and cultural activist whose studies and work with Joseph Beuys inspired a 4-decade long practical enquiry into ways of working with Beuys’ social sculpture proposals and ideas, first in the South African liberation struggle, and globally since 1990. In 1997 she set up the Social Sculpture Research Unit in Oxford, developing her ‘connective practice’ approach, which explores the relationship between freedom and responsibility as an ability-to-respond, inner system change and outer action, the role of imagination in transformation and in decolonizing the mind, and informs all her public practice, research and teaching.

Anna Backmund

Coordination FRAMETALKS, Strategy team New Eyes for the World; facilitation of Earth Forum and other core lab activities

Anna Backmund has been working closely with Shelley Sacks since the Earth Forum Facilitator Training in 2019 and from late 2019 in the FRAMETALKS project for the Potsdam State Parliament. Since 2020 she has been part of the Kassel21 Social Sculpture Lab Core Team and coordinates the FRAMETALKS practice. She is a psychologist, educational referee for Education for Sustainable Development [ESD] and global learning, and works with theater pedagogy and non-violent communication.

Karsten Winnemuth

Coordination and facilitation, Earth Forum, with focus on specific questions

Karsten Winnemuth has lived in Kassel since 1990. He is a gardener, musician, permaculture designer and initiator and coordinator of Essbare Stadt e.V. and the Docutopia project. He works in a variety of socio-cultural contexts and has been working with Shelley Sacks since 2012 as an Earth Forum and Social Sculpture facilitator. He offers Earth Forums for groups in and around Kassel.

Martina Schäfer

Coordination, facilitation and training, Feld der Begegnung

Martina studied cultural studies and aesthetic practice and is dedicated to the “art of touch” in a variety of ways. She is a holistic massage therapist and trainer, works as a music therapist in the field of “palliative care” and as a social sculpture practitioner is committed to a more life-friendly world.

Rosa van Wyk

Social Sculpture Lab Consultant, Online Processes and Website

Rosa is a creative strategy and planning consultant who specialises in developing scalable multi-channel strategies for clients ranging from disruptive start-ups and sustainable solutions, to established global brands. Currently Managing Director of iCrossing Spain and Senior VP Creative at iCrossing, Rosa has supported other social sculpture initiatives, like ‘Exchange Values’ and ‘University of the Trees’.

Susanne Völker

Partner in Earth Forum City ‘youth program’ and exploration of ‘public pedagogies’, Founding Member and Executive Board Member of the Social Sculpture Lab e. V.

Dr. Susanne Völker (non-partisan) has been Head of the Department of Culture of the City of Kassel since 2017. Prior to this, she was a museums director and in 2015 she successfully opened the internationally renowned house GRIMMWELT Kassel as founding director. Susanne Völker studied art history, philosophy, law and museum management in Hamburg and Vienna and did her PhD in the field of cultural science (World Heritage) in Paderborn. She is committed to a transdisciplinary and participatory approach to cultural policy.

Philipp John

Coordinator of FRAMETALKS-Fluxus with Social Sculpture Lab Team; Founding Member and executive Team of Social Sculpture Lab e.V. Curator of Museum-Fluxus+ [Potsdam].

Studied art history, history, theater- and educational science at Berlin and Vienna. Ph.D. in real-time systems, photography and sculpture at FU-Berlin. Interested in the field of Social Sculpture as well as in approaches to self-determined learning, knowledge transfer, supportive leadership and teambuilding. Lives and works at Potsdam/Germany.

Peter Färber

FRAMETALKS strategy team

After many years of teaching children at a school for Waldorf pedagogy, my new profession is biography work with adults. I am inspired by Joseph Beuys’ Social Sculpture ideas and am very glad to be part of Kassel21 -Social Sculpture Lab initiated by Shelley Sacks.

Emilia Stapel

Emilia is exploring ways of documenting the different aspects of the Social Sculpture Lab through film.

Emilia is a student of cultural studies and aesthetic practice at the University of Hildesheim and works in the fields of film, art and theater. She has a strong interest in ecological and social art practice.