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The culture channel “arte” praises your project “Eddi Airways” and calls it “not a social project but a cultural phenomenon”. What does that mean?
Eike Swoboda: It may be that “arte” wants to express that the artistic projects of “barner 16” do not focus on the educational aspect but on the product, the mystery series “Eddi Airways”. It is about the special abilities of the artists that are too often hidden behind the “disability”. This is the reason why there is no indication on Eddi Airways' Youtube channel that this is a project with artists with handicaps. The disability is not to be hidden – it simply does not matter in this project.
“Eddi” is now available to the world via Youtube and Facebook. What is he doing there?
Eike Swoboda: Eddi is first and foremost meant to entertain. The series is much more of an art project than a commercially oriented “winning concept”. The chosen genre means that it will take longer to reach its audience than, for example, one of the currently very popular comedy series.
What can it achieve once the story has found fans?
Eike Swoboda: Once the series has found its pool of loyal viewers, it can certainly serve as an example for others who may have always wanted to try something similar but never quite knew how to tackle it or whether it would be worthwhile.In a way, Eddi could promote more courage for artists for whom their handicap is a wall in their head preventing them from finally daring!
How would a real success of “Eddi” on the internet actually look like?
Eike Swoboda: Firstly, a large number of viewers. And secondly, it would be great, of course, if other formats of this kind suddenly appeared.
“Eddie” draws its imagination from the imagination of people who are mentally handicapped. Right?
Eike Swoboda: “Eddi” draws from the imagination of all the artists involved in this project. Some of them carry this label around with them – that's right!
Can you see that in “Eddi”?
Eike Swoboda: That's difficult to answer for someone who basically has no thoughts about this matter, because it is not relevant for the work.
Would it not be better if “Eddi” declared itself a “social project”?People might then say: It is great what people like you manage to do.
Eike Swoboda: As already described above, most viewers would then watch the events with a completely different set of eyes, which would not contribute to the understanding of the story as we have conceived it. “Disability” is not an issue for Eddi Airways and would only be unnecessarily distracting. So in short: No!