Objects in Diaspora Are Closer Than They Appear: Collage and Artist's Book Workshop

Objects in Diaspora Are Closer Than They Appear is a two-part workshop series that will take place on April 17, 2026 and May 8, 2026, hosted by the Book Studio. The series will use collage and artists’ books to explore how migration reshapes memory, attachment, and loss. Rather than treating migration as a single event, the workshops will focus on ongoing affective residues, mainly how objects, places, and images accumulate new meanings over time.

Materials will be provided for each session by the Book Studio; however, participants are strongly encouraged to bring a specific photograph/image that holds personal significance, as the sessions will center on working through individual attachments rather than generic imagery. This can be a photograph of a landmark, a scenic view, a family photograph, or any other image of an object tied to certain memories of home and what it has come to mean for them.

Each session will begin with a short introduction that offers guidance, practical prompts and visual examples for the two mediums to suggest possible approaches, but participants are encouraged to explore each medium in ways that align with their own artistic choices.

Session 1: Collage, April 17, 2026, AE 11, 14:00-18:00

The first session centers on collage as a method for disassembling and reworking an affectively charged object connected to the individual/cultural/national memory of the participants. Participants will begin by identifying a single object, place, or a photo tied to their home country. Through cutting, layering, and reconfiguring images, they will manipulate the original representation to reflect how its meaning has changed over time. This session emphasizes material decision-making, that is deciding what to remove, repeat, or hide, as a way to register loss, contradiction, and transformation. The aim is not to restore the object’s original meaning, but to produce a visual form that holds its altered associations and unresolved affects.

Session 2: Artist’s Book, May 8, 2026, AE11, 14:00-18:00

The second session turns the collage works into artists’ books to explore the different layers brought together by collage. Participants will experiment at once with construction and deconstruction as they will try to create a book from the layers brought together in their collages. This session will involve practices of binding, folding, and separating the layers of the collages into different pages of the book. Examples of different artists’ books will be provided as inspiration and to introduce the medium.

Please note that participantion is limited to University of Münster staff and students. A @uni-muenster.de email account is required for registration. Registration includes both the April 17 and May 8 sessions.

Feel free to contact okayan@uni-muenster.de for further questions.