Tag Archives: Munich/Leipzig

BMW

When the world comes collectively

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Munich/Leipzig. When the group at BMW Group Plant Leipzig choose up their instruments on a Monday morning, the entire world comes collectively: about 70 nationalities collaborate right here. The group come not simply from Germany but in addition from locations like Syria, Poland, Spain, Egypt and Eritrea. “We all work together really well, it’s enriching and founded on acceptance and mutual respect,” defined Plant Director Petra Peterhänsel. Cultural variety is the order of the day, not simply right here however throughout the BMW Group – and has been for a really very long time.

As the group expands, Plant Leipzig is getting much more vibrant and various. Cultural variety is essential to creating the BMW Group electrical, digital and round, and specialists from all fields and throughout the globe are wanted to make sure safe provides of labour and assist align the BMW Group as carefully as doable with the needs and wishes of its stakeholders in a worldwide world that’s all the time on the transfer.

Plant Leipzig exemplifies the BMW Group’s elementary perception that cultural variety is welcome, important to its success and enhances the corporate’s attractiveness as an employer. It additionally units the BMW Group aside, with some 150,000 staff worldwide from greater than 110 totally different international locations all doing their half for our shared success.

BMW Group to take energetic half in German Diversity Day

On World Day for Cultural Diversity on 21 May and German Diversity Day – established by the Diversity Charter and happening on 28 May – the BMW Group will probably be seizing the chance to do extra to advertise and strengthen cultural variety inside its personal ranks by means of quite a few in-house actions.

But these are simply two of assorted marketing campaign days every year on which the BMW Group devotes its consideration to variety, equal alternatives and inclusion.

Plant Leipzig: the cultural combine is a problem – however a chance as nicely

When Abdelrahman Salem adopted his German girlfriend – now his spouse – from Egypt to Germany, he arrived right here talking hardly a phrase of the language. At the age of 30, the pilot discovered himself having to determine a brand new skilled focus. An alternative arose on the BMW Group: he handed his entrance examination, realized German with the assistance of the corporate and was in a position to begin coaching as a manufacturing mechanic. Today he’s a specialist in battery module manufacturing, and in April of this 12 months he was awarded German citizenship. “In terms of integration, both personally and professionally, language was key,” stated Salem trying again. He can be eager to share his optimistic experiences with others: whereas present process coaching himself, he already began supporting different colleagues coming in from different international locations by exhibiting them the ropes and translating technical documentation for them.

Abdelrahman Salem is a part of a multicultural group at Plant Leipzig, the place the share of staff from different international locations has grown considerably over the past ten years. In 2017 they got here from 44 totally different nations, rising to over 70 by 2023.

For somebody like Salem to progress as he has, energetic integration is essential. “The mix of cultures is a new challenge because not all our new colleagues speak the same language as we do. That’s why we offer German courses and intercultural training to help people get along with each other, so we can all grow together,” stated Plant Director Petra Peterhänsel.

Practising a ‘welcome culture’ 

At BMW Group crops in Germany, integration is actively promoted. Departments present the fundamentals of their specialist information in several languages in addition to pictograms, and to assist staff enhance their language expertise, the BMW Group covers the price of the private contribution they should pay for language programs by the Office for Migration and Refugees. As a part of its ‘welcome culture’ the BMW Group additionally works laborious to point out newcomers the ropes of their new jobs. And the trouble is paying off: workers turnover is low and new colleagues are sending a optimistic message to the surface world. An necessary function in all of this falls to managers: as function fashions, they’ll affect the environment within the group – which can be the explanation managers in manufacturing endure intercultural coaching, for instance.

No place for discrimination 

At the BMW Group, variety is about extra than simply cultures: it additionally covers intercourse, age and expertise, bodily and psychological talents, and sexual orientation and gender id. With ample understanding and acceptance of others and a way for similarities and variations, collectively these dimensions of variety grow to be a energy. To keep away from prejudice and discrimination, all staff endure necessary coaching on equal remedy and the way respectful collaboration can succeed. The course is at the moment being rolled out worldwide.

Young expertise growth: Wanted! International views

So that younger skills acquire early expertise of intercultural collaboration, the BMW Group encourages worldwide secondments. Trainees and trainee apprentices, for instance, can spend time overseas by way of the worldwide MOVE programme and work elsewhere within the manufacturing community, for instance within the UK, the US, South Africa, China or Mexico. The worldwide alternate scheme for graduates is the worldwide AcceleratiON programme. Both of those initiatives intention to assist younger folks broaden their horizons, join and expertise totally different views.   

BMW

BMW Photo Award Leipzig 2024: Inaugural award by BMW and Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig. Margit Emmrich, Susanne Keichel and Stephan Takkides honoured.

Munich/Leipzig. The new BMW Photo Award Leipzig will assist artists each two years who both have a biographical connection to Leipzig and the area or who consciously interact with town and its environment of their creative work. The prerequisite is figure within the medium of pictures or associated visible media. The three winners are chosen by a altering, worldwide jury consisting of artists, curators, artwork academy professors and different consultants. Each jury member proposes three positions. The prize is endowed with €5,000 per artist and is linked to a joint exhibition together with a list on the Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig (MdbK). The BMW Niederlassung Leipzig and the BMW Group have recurrently supported the MdbK with purchases and exhibitions since 2005.

BMW and the MdbK pursue a number of goals with the awarding of the prize. Firstly, it’s a few basic strengthening of Leipzig as a centre for pictures and the photographers working there. Particularly younger positions and people which, within the jury’s view, haven’t but been adequately recognised in public, ought to be highlighted. In addition, the award is an expression of the excessive worth positioned on pictures on the MdbK and the museum’s collaboration with BMW on this subject, which has been ongoing for over 20 years. Finally, the exhibition of the prize-winning works is meant to make a creative contribution to social self-assurance concerning the historical past and current of town and potential views for its future.

The award ceremony will happen on 6 June 2024 as a part of the opening of the exhibition (7. June – 15. September 2024).

The jury
The jury for the primary BMW Photo Award Leipzig met on the MdbK in early December. Its members consisted of Ines Schaber (Professor of Photography and Media, Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig), Inka Schube (Curator of Photography, Sprengel Museum Hannover), Andrzej Steinbach (artist, Berlin), Christoph Wiesner (Director of Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles) and Philipp Freytag (Curator of Photography and Media Art on the MdbK). The three prize winners have been chosen by the jury with a unanimous vote.

Award winner 2024
Margit Emmrich: Born in Chemnitz in 1949, grew up in Leipzig | 1969-1974 studied pictures on the HGB underneath Heinz Föppel and Joachim Jansong | 1976-1978 trainee on the HGB | 1974-1979 labored as a freelancer in Leipzig and Berlin | 1979-1980 political imprisonment | 1981-1987 employed in Freiburg/Breisgau | 1987-1994 household work in Erlangen | 1994 returned to Leipzig and has labored there as a freelancer ever since.

“Margit Emmrich’s work has a considerable significance for the visual memory of the city of Leipzig as well as East Germany and united Germany as a whole. This applies to the social conditions and developmental psychological circumstances she has documented as well as to her photographic approach. Her humanistic social documentary photography combines high artistic standards with concrete sociological questions. This makes her exemplary for the tradition of Leipzig photography in the last third of the 20th century.” (Philipp Freytag, curator for pictures and media artwork on the MdbK)

Susanne Keichel: Born 1981 in Dresden | 2000-2003 coaching as a photographer with Stefan Thurmann in Hamburg | 2003-2005 freelance picture assistant in Hamburg | 2006/2007 visitor scholar in Jitka Hanzlová’s seminar on the HFBK Hamburg | 2013 diploma in pictures on the HGB | 2016 grasp scholar graduate with Tina Bara. Susanne Keichel lives and works in Dresden.

“In her work, Susanne Keichel deals with questions of racism, classism and social justice. In doing so, she creates pictorial spaces that question stereotypes and test visualisation.” (Ines Schaber, Professor of Photography and Media, Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig)

Stephan Takkides: Born 1981 in Canterbury | 1999-2000 Foundation Studies, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London | 2002 Universität der Künste Berlin | 2000-2003 BA, Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts, London | 2010-2012 MFA, Transart Institute, University of Plymouth, USA/UK | 2018-2021 Master scholar on the HGB with Joachim Brohm. Stephan Takkides lives and works in Leipzig.

“Stephan Takkides is a British-Cypriot photographer and artist who has been naturalised in Germany. In his multi-channel video work ‘Naturalization’, he explores the relationship between nature and national identity, interweaving different perspectives and narrative strands.” (Ines Schaber, Professor of Photography and Media, Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig)

The BMW Group and the MdbK
The BMW Group and the MdbK have been linked by a profitable partnership for 18 years. The basis was laid in 2005 with the donation of the great picture assortment ‘AutoWerke: European and American Photography’ with over 70 works – together with works by Thomas Demand, Thomas Struth, Rineke Dijkstra and Candida Höfer – on the event of the opening of the brand new museum constructing and the commissioning of the BMW plant in Leipzig. Since then, the BMW Niederlassung Leipzig and the BMW Group have recurrently supported the museum with acquisitions and exhibitions. In 2023, the 2 companions have agreed on a long-term collaboration with the purpose of BMW supporting the MdbK’s initiatives for modern pictures. In addition to the award, this consists of the assist of exhibitions – similar to the present Evelyn Richter. A Photographer’s Life – and purchases.

The BMW Group’s Cultural Engagement, with unique updates and deeper insights into its world initiatives may be adopted on Instagram at @BMWGroupCulture.