Workcamp in Deutschland

Wiesenburg 2011

von Heejin Chun

I arrived at Berlin, Germany in July 14th, and toured alone one day. I also toured Munich alone after my workcamp. I thought Germany is really beautiful city and all people in there are so kind to foreigner like me. In July 16th, I went to Wiesenburg by the train, the place that the workcamp was held. Our title was ‘Upcycling through Art’ and our project was to prepare the art summer festival, enjoy the festival with artists, and clean up all of them. Wiesenburg was really nature-friendly village. Forests, trees, some insects including bees are all in the village freely and peacefully.

In Wiesenburg, we stayed in an elementary school. At first we stayed in tents but because of the bad weather, we moved to inside. We stayed all together in the classroom so we could become friends easily each other. Our work started usually at 10 o’ clock. In the first week, we made and moved big tents, made ‘kompost’ which is really helpful to organic life, made some signposts for festival like ‘no smoking, no shoes’, and decorated or painted all the things around us. We also went to the field and experienced about farming.
 
In the second week, in July 28th, the festival started. Many artists came to our place. We could do many activities during the festival like making masks, making instruments with natural or recycled objects, making own work with natural objects, singing, watching videos, etc. I made a mask and it was well-fitted activity for me because I like to make something. The last day of the festival was July 31th, and there was an exhibition. Some camp members and artists held a parade with masks. My mask was in the important middle section so I felt really proud. Many works were displayed and we could see all of our works. After the festival ended and all artists were gone, we cleared up everything. At last night of the workcamp, we had a barbecue party.

In our free time, we almost could do everything. We could just sit and listen to the music or read a book, play with the ball, go to the market and buy something, play cards that some camp member brought, play group games, etc. Also in our free weekend, we went to Berlin and went shopping, went bar, and some famous places. We drank, danced, and sang at night free time. It was really good and cool to become intimate each other.

When it comes to food, we had to make our meals. We made a kitchen team with two people each day and they made meals whole day. I made some Korean stew and pancakes with Korean sauce that I brought. It was successful and I was really happy to hear “It’s delicious!” from our camp members. There were some vegetarians so we should prepare food with considering them. We usually made two kinds of dishes like for vegetarians and for non-vegetarians. When we were hungry with simple meal with vegetables, we went to kebob shop near our place and ate it. Actually that was really fun.

I really enjoyed my first workcamp with my good camp members. We know each other’s Facebook URL and exchange greetings. I hope this relation lasts long. I also liked the activity related with the art. I will never forget this cool workcamp and thanks to good memories, I have a thought of going to the workcamp one more time.