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Sonja Schenkel

On Mind and Matter.

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The Library for a Happy Future

The Library for a Happy Future is a  participatory art and science project enabling transdisciplinary social and ecological transformation. It builds on Joseph Beuys’ legacy of understanding society as a malleable material (“Social Sculpture”) while extending this approach for the 21st century: globally networked, ecologically impactful, digitally documented.

The project connects local communities, scientists, and artists worldwide to develop concrete solutions to ecological challenges and the integration of One Health prinicples—from water and river projects to participatory environmental research and social rituals.

Artists and researcher work not only as producers of aesthetic objects or bodies of knowledge but as co-facilitators, and shapers of social processes. The practice draws inspiration from indigenous art and knowledge systems, where creativity, materiality, sustainability, and collective knowledge are inseparable from life.

The Library for a Happy Future was founded in 2022. Editions have been conducted in Zurich, Vals, Neuchâtel and currently in Basel.

The Basel edition is being funded by the Science et Cité and Swiss Academy of Sciences, Christoph Merian Foundation, Catapult and Pestalozzi’s Children Foundation

 

 

The Library for a Happy Future in Vals

 

The pilot version of the Library for a Happy Future in Zurich unfolded over a year in 2023, focusing five main topics.

 

The Library for a Happy Future in Zurich, 22/23

The Library focuses on a positive mindset developing our vision for the future through action in the present, intergenerational dialogue and by connecting art, science and traditional knowledge.

Eating and cooking together as a community is an important part of the Libraries.

At a Foodsave Banquet, vegetables were measured and, despite their imperfections, cooked together as a community. The discussions on the topic continued late into the night.

Histories of Resilience was an event to invite former refugee to share their stories of re-inventing their new lifes.

 

Students at the University of St.Gallen analysed how the Libray could become more impact-oriented.