When Julius Bockelt comes to class on Monday morning, many soap bubbles float in the air. Giant bubbles that last a long time thanks to the cola in the mixture, as he reveals. Because sugar makes the soap solution stable - so it doesn't work with Cola light. He mixes and tries until the best mix is ​​found. In the meantime, his assistant Jan Lotter is already setting up the computer screen. Half an hour later, a professional video appears on it, in which Bockelt demonstrates how to mix colored ink into the durable soap bubbles, burst them on long paper webs and create very pretty pictures in the process.

The entertaining short videos were shot during the Corona period, when lessons were only possible on the screen. Now they are a welcome change, even when everyone is back at school and even allowed to emit plenty of aerosols while making soap bubbles. When the computer voice (deliberately) gets stuck, repeats the same thing over and over and then curses audibly, the students laugh, which of course was planned that way, which they can see through. The voice then politely hands over to the teacher: “He can do this much better than me, because he is a real person.” There is plenty of applause for this, and Bockelt takes over.

He gives no further explanations or warnings not to mess up, no instructions on what to do in which order: he shows, the children imitate.

Mix in a little more cola or more ink.

Soon the space in the studio is no longer enough for many, in the courtyard paper webs are now stuck to the floor and the wall, the color-intensive soap bubbles burst everywhere.

Sometimes a splash of paint goes wrong and the ink drips onto the floor and tables, but nobody here cares.

The students are in the flow, as the saying goes, some can hardly get enough, only two or three but a little bit, don't participate, but that doesn't bother anyone either.

You have to want art, not be prescribed.

Inner peace, concentration and a good mood

Every Monday, Bockelt teaches two times two hours in workshop lessons at the Frankfurt IGS Süd. Other artists also offer such continuous workshops here; they are part of the school concept. Bockelt's working hours are recognized by the Praunheim workshops in which the thirty-five year old is usually employed. At school he is not the person with the stamp of “cognitive impairment”, but the teacher the children ask when they want to know how something works. Bockelt works three days a week in the Praunheim workshops, one day on his artistic work in the studio and one day as a teacher at school.

Incidentally, he spent the weekend before in Paris, where a gallery is currently showing his works.

He was just the artist then.

Bockelt is a very busy man who exudes inner calm, concentration and a good mood.

He often smiles, even in moments when others at least mention, if not loudly complain, their sleep deficit, the lack of lunch or the stress.

Lessons for the children of IGS Süd do not take place in the school building, but a few streets away, in a backyard on Schneckenhofstrasse, where Atelier Goldstein maintains a branch with studios and a large classroom, rented by Lebenshilfe.

When the extension is ready, for which FAZ readers can donate this year, all activities are to be bundled at this location.