Jil Tischer: Do it yourself - but together

The search for traces of Jil Tischer's creative streak leads to her family and circle of friends. Her first creative impulses came from an analog camera that she received as a gift from her older sister. "In general, I was surrounded by a creative circle of friends in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg. Many of my friends started making music, painting, designing or photographing at an early age - with the aim of working in the arts and culture later on," says Tischer. "This social environment encouraged me to take my own creativity seriously and to see myself as an artist."

The interest in art galleries awakened by events such as Berlin Art Week or Gallery Weekend Berlin initially brought her to the Leipzig gallery EIGEN+ART, whose history impresses her to this day - it quickly developed from an illegal meeting place to a well-known address for an ambitious exhibition program. A communications job at the Schloss Kummerow photo collection, which consists to a significant extent of works by former GDR photographers, brought her closer to the self-effect of cultural institutions. An internship at a film and photo production company gave her more creative power. "As the team initially only consisted of the founder and her right-hand woman as well as two interns, I was given an incredible amount of responsibility right from the start," reports Tischer, whose visual imagination and organizational skills were already strongly encouraged and challenged at the time.

Jil Tischer experienced first-hand how the team and the productions grew. The thought of staying with the production company briefly popped up. "But when the contract ended, it was clear that that wasn't all I wanted to know in life," remarks Tischer, who spent a summer playing through an online study guide, with one particular question sticking in her mind: "You want to find out what qualifies post-heroic cultural managers and feminist dramaturges to open up a new perspective on the world?

"And the more I looked into the CCM Bachelor and ZU, the more I found myself in it," explains Tischer. Feeling welcome and in good hands at ZU, she spent her first two semesters rehearsing cheerleading choreographies and organizing (tunnel) parties to raise money for Welle20's studio space. What interested her more than anything else right from the start was the university's arts program. "I already knew during the introductory week that the position of curatorial assistant at artsprogram would be 'a dream come true'," mentions Tischer, who was more than happy when she was entrusted with this very position two years later.

During her studies, she was initially interested in urban sociology. When she was offered the opportunity to design and organize the Seekult Festival together with Lilli Kim Schreiber, she didn't have to think long and immediately knew what direction the event should take. What could a city look like that prioritizes the needs of caregivers and not those of industry and cars? What does it mean for public spaces if parks are not illuminated and there are too many underpasses? "Friedrichshafen is a perfect playground for asking these questions. And it is remarkable how this suddenly changes your own view of a city. With the activities at the Seekult Festival, we also wanted to awaken this changed perception among the citizens," remarks Tischer.

Artists, architects, curators and cultural workers came to Friedrichshafen, mainly from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, to enter into a dialog with visitors at locations throughout the city and to think and discuss with them about forms of urban development and urban coexistence. "In keeping with the collective idea, we also tried to include as many student and civil society initiatives as possible in the program and make them part of the festival," adds Tischer. The result was a festival with 40 events over ten days.

But that was by no means the end of the project. At the heart of Seekult was the association "Der Raum e.V.", which not only served as a meeting, exhibition and feel-good space for everyone during the festival. This association has now been taken over by Jil Tischer. Around 50 formats took place during the semester, with the space being used by student initiatives as well as municipal art and cultural associations. "As we provided the space free of charge, it became increasingly difficult to cover the running costs over time," says Tischer, who worked hard to ensure the space's survival. "A successful fundraising campaign kept us afloat for a while, but after two semesters the concept was no longer viable. I am grateful for the moments we created. But the truth is that we should have rethought the concept earlier or opened up and handed over the space," admits Tischer.

Seekult is still with Jil Tischer today: a limited edition book on the festival was recently published under the title "Fluid Spaces - Urban Curating for Decentralities". Her task was to work with a graphic designer to transform the book into a work of art, so to speak. "Like the locations in the city, we wanted the publication to be colorful and lively," says Tischer.