QuerKlang TXL – Klangräume des Ankommens

From April to June 2026, the project QuerKlang TXL – Klangräume des Ankommens will bring to life an artistic education initiative within the social and urban context of the new refugee shelter on the grounds of the former Berlin-Tegel Airport (TXL). The project is aimed at children and young people living there, as well as teachers and educators from neighboring school districts. The goal is to use the medium of sound to create new pathways to aesthetic education, self-efficacy, and social participation—regardless of language, background, or prior musical training.

QuerKlang TXL builds on the long-standing experience of the QuerKlang program—Experimental Composition in Schools—and applies its methodological approach to a new, socially shaped location currently under development. The project sees itself as a musical-educational experimental space where children and young people, together with artists and educators, explore, record, and reimagine the soundscape of their immediate surroundings, distilling it into their own compositions. Listening, as a social and artistic skill, is at the center of this process. Sound becomes a shared language through which communication and connection become possible.

The project is divided into three phases that build upon one another:

During the first workshop week (April 2026), artists from the QuerKlang team will work with children and young people from the shelter. Using recording equipment, their voices, instruments, and everyday objects, the participants will explore the TXL grounds, collect sounds, and develop initial improvisations and sound sketches. This work lays the artistic foundation and strengthens perception, expressive ability, and group dynamics.

The second phase (May 2026) is dedicated to transferring these experiences to teachers and educators in the neighboring school districts. In practice-oriented workshops and accompanying reflection sessions, the methods of sound research will be presented, tested, and collectively reflected upon. The focus is on the question of how experimental and research-based work with sound can be integrated into school and extracurricular educational contexts.

In the third phase (June 2026), the artists return to the accommodation to conduct a constructive workshop together with the children, young people, and selected educators. The collected sound materials will be used to create a collective composition that gives voice to the experiences and perspectives of all participants. This work will culminate in a public performance at the TXL model site, designed as an open, inclusive sound event. Residents of the shelter, neighborhood initiatives, local residents, and interested members of the community will be invited to attend. The performance will be documented and can subsequently be used as an audio work or sound installation.

From an artistic-educational perspective, QuerKlang TXL aims to facilitate aesthetic experiences as a form of social participation. Children and young people learn to actively perceive their surroundings and shape them creatively. Educators are empowered to integrate experimental teaching methods into their lessons. At the same time, the project fosters connections between the shelter, schools, artists, and local initiatives, and contributes to the development of an open, culturally diverse urban culture in TXL.

The project QuerKlang TXL – Sound Spaces of Arrival is made possible by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.

Further information:
querklang.eu

Date

June 27, 2026
TXL 2025 Model Area, Berlin