“Home means quality of life and connects us with each other in times that seem to separate us.” (Ministry of Heimat, Kommunales, Bau und Gleischstellung of North Rhine-Westphalia)
We all have our own concept of home – but what it means to us deep inside is often difficult to put into words. The concept of home seems to be colourful and versatile and represents much more than just a spot on the map. Home can be something territorial, like the place we were born, a city we moved to or the country we’re from, which often goes hand in hand with cultural aspects: identifying with certain values and unique features of a nation as well as a mutual language and culture.
As Grönemeyer sang in his song, home is always also a feeling, something social, like closeness and safety or the feeling of stability. So along with the territorial and the cultural aspect, the concept of home can also be understood in an emotional context. Home can for example become a sensory aspect and define a certain smell, but it can also act temporal as a place of remembrance of certain places or stages of life. No matter what context we see the concept of home in, it always defines beginning with a place also through togetherness and with this creates awareness for the individual and mutual identity of a human.
The funding programme
With the help of the funding programme “Heimatwerkstatt”, the ministry of Heimat, Kommunales, Bau und Gleichstellung of North Rhine-Westphalia would like to visualize the vast variety of concepts of home within the different regions of the state.
It is not only about emphasizing different traditions or distinctive features of an area that support creating a mutual identity, but more than that the programme sees itself as an invitation to reflect, contribute actively and together create a place for encounter and exchange.