Places of longing: the result can now be seen as a collage on the Town Hall and in the Stadtsparkasse

In September, 14 participants from five nations met in Bocholt to find their favourite and longing places together and capture them in pictures. Now these pictures can be seen in a collage on the construction fence of the town hall, Berliner Platz, and in the foyer of the Stadtsparkasse Bocholt.

The action is part of the project "Generations, Cultures, Diversity", which is promoted by the Federal Working Group of Senior Citizens' Offices and aims to facilitate cross-generational and cross-cultural encounters on the topics of "art and culture". The action is accompanied locally by the city of Bocholt, together with the associations "Leben im Alter" and "jusina".

The participants, aged 15-72, from five different nations, set off inpairs with their cameras to their personal "places of longing".

"Places of longing can be very different," says Agnes Wellkamp from the "Leben im Alter" association. "For
some they are places associated with positive memories of childhood or the past,
and for others they are places where you like to meet friends or where you can come to rest
."

Favourite places on construction fence banner

And so the favourite places that can now be seen on the construction fence banner at the town hall and the large picture in the Stadtsparkasse are indeed very diverse. They range from places of industrial culture to leisure facilities and Bocholt landmarks.

Bruno Wansing, Integration Officer of the City of Bocholt: "In Bocholt we want to promote dialogue between cultures and generations. Projects like this, where young and old people from different backgrounds and with different life experiences come together, are a small building block for this."

Collecting new project ideas

Last week, the participants met again to hang up the banner together, but also to collect new project ideas. Caroline Kuhl from the Federal Working Group of Senior Citizens' Offices was also present and was pleased about the great commitment of the senior citizens and young people from Bocholt. "We want to continue to find topics within the framework of this project that are of interest to all generations and thus promote encounters and exchange. Many creative activities are conceivable," announces Nina Kremer, head of the senior citizens' office.