Tehran – Dortmund
Visiting the Ruhr Area, one thing can’t be avoided. The Zollern Colliery is one of the preserved Collieries and was turned into a museum after closing. During the guided tour, everyone learned about the working conditions and the dangers of working in a cole mine. Also the procedures every miner had to go through every shift and the equipment evolving in time were nicely displayed and an important part of the tours.
The first day is nearly over, but to celebrate the arrival of the Iranian guests a great meal is never wrong. Everyone gathered in a Portuguese restaurant and shared food and the first impressions. Next to a World Cup football game and a lot of food there was finally some time to relaxe and recalibrate.
All Iranian students and the teachers arrived safe and sound at Dusseldorf Airport after an very early flight from Tehran. Prof. Jörg Winde and research assistant Samaneh Khosravi picked them up for a direct transfer to the hostel.
After a short break, the workshop will officially start with a meeting at the design department of University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund.
For the last hours of the Workshop in Tehran, we decided to take a step back and see where we spent the last 10 days. To do so, there is no better place than “The roof of Tehran”. At the foot of the mountain and after 20 minutes of walking, we reached a nice area with a few attractions and probably the best view on a city with 15 million inhabitants.
After long days working on the projects, the students were looking forward for a nice and relaxing dinner. Finding a location for 24 people was sometimes rather difficult, but thankfully Tehran offers a great variety of cafes and restaurants where each craving can be satisfied. Of course, traditional Persian food was something the German students loved to try. So the evenings were spend in locations like “jigaraki”, “O.Ino”, “Libra” or for the quick and delicious bite the “V café”.
Everyone worked hard to develop a cohesive body of work. The curatorial team began viewing the final selection of the students based on the subject and concept developed over the past few months. Now is the time to organize the exhibition and decide how to hang all those great pictures with very different topics in one room. It was a long productive day and everyone seems to be happy with the results.