May 19th, 2018 thru July 18th, 2018
On May 19th, 2018, the Ship of Tolerance was officially inaugurated with a huge party in the city harbor.
After Easter of 2018, in the period from 08th April to 22nd April 2018, a team of carpenters built the ship in Rostock, Germany. In March, the Russian-American artist, Emilia Kabakov, came to Rostock where she attended schools and kindergartens workshops, where children painted the ship sails.
The response to the project, Ship of Tolerance, was overwhelming and absolutely positive! Several newspaper articles and small TV reports have been published in a short time.
In April, they conducted intensive sailing workshops to design the (estimated) 800 – 1000 ship sails. More than 700 pupils and students of different ages participated, partly physically and mentally handicapped, which represented a great organizational challenge for the small team, but everything worked fine, and the children had so much fun:-)
With the Ship of Tolerance, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov strive to connect people from different continents, cultures, and identities by actively involving them in the project. Working together should convey the respect for foreign cultures and ideas as well as the acceptance of differences.
The project has already been realized in numerous locations since 2005.
“The Ship of Tolerance project has been traveling around the world since 2005. I am delighted that it will be presented next year as part of the 800th anniversary of the Hanseatic City, the MV Day and the Hanseatic Days the installation with schools, kindergartens, clubs, businesses and church institutions, where the participants paint their messages on tolerance, peace and respectful society in society on canvas cloths.
As Prime Minister, I fight for a cosmopolitan and democratic Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. I am campaigning for a country in which all people, regardless of age, gender, religion and skin color, can live together peacefully. That’s why I gladly took over the patronage over the project. “
Manuela Schwesig, Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
In the coming year, a wooden ship, which is about twenty meters long, five and a half meters wide and has a mast eleven meters high, is being built on the IGA site in Rostock.
The sail is composed of one hundred and twenty individually painted sailcloths and lit after dark.
Thus, the Kunsthalle Rostock wants to make an artistic contribution to a current social topic and is at the same time part of a worldwide project of the artist couple.
With the takeover of the patronage, Minister President Manuela Schwesig gives the art project a special status.
