Unsere Knochen schlagen die Trommel

PUBLICATION · ARTISTIC RESEARCH · FORTHCOMING 2026

An Artistic and Scholarly Exploration of Ageing

Unsere Knochen schlagen die Trommel is an interdisciplinary publication exploring ageing as an individual, social, and cultural process through the encounter between artistic practice and scholarly research.

The publication grew out of the international project PLUS – A Project for an Aging World, developed between Germany and Japan from 2021 to 2022. Through performances, exhibitions, workshops, readings, film interviews, and symposia, artists and scholars approached ageing from different disciplinary and cultural perspectives. Rather than seeking a single definition of ageing, the project brought these perspectives into dialogue, examining how experiences and understandings of later life are shaped by social structures, cultural contexts, artistic practices, and different forms of knowledge.

The book revisits key concepts that emerged through this process and develops them further through artistic and scholarly contributions. It asks not only how ageing can be represented and understood, but also how knowledge about ageing is produced—and what role art can play in opening alternative ways of thinking about it.

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Published by Wienand Verlag, the bilingual German–English volume is edited by Marc Franz, Shingo Shimada, and Sylvia Y. Tam, with contributions by Marc Franz, Shingo Shimada, Jan Grashof, Thorsten Hoppe, Akiko Iwabuchi, and Silke van Dyk.

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A Project by
Taifun Project e.V.

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Editors
Marc Franz · Shingo Shimada · Sylvia Y. Tam

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Cover Artwork
Rene Spitze

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Publisher
Wienand Verlag, Cologne

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Languages
German / English

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Publication
December 2026

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ISBN
978-3-86832-821-9