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Current & Programme

Against Hate

Political discourse around the world is shifting towards authoritarian ideologies. Wherever there is incitement against minorities, polemics against immigration and attacks on the freedom of the press, the democratic function of public space is at risk. This is also where Urbane Künste Ruhr operates artistically. 

Hate speech is not a civil liberty. We condemn all forms of racism, discrimination and an increasing ethnic demarcation, as it is becoming more and more acceptable also in German parliaments. 

And Facts are not a matter of opinion. Freedom of art and science are inalienable. Germany is and remains a country of immigration. Urbane Künste Ruhr is committed to a diverse society in which people of all skin colors, origins and gender identities are welcome and participate in public discourse on an equal footing. Let's continue to fight for this goal as a community now and in the future!

Von Fragmenten ausgehend

An evening with Marlin de Haan, Jonas Leifert, Paula Pedraza, Franziska Pierwoss, Anna R. Winder and others

The evening Von Fragmenten ausgehend is both a conclusion and a beginning: it marks the end of the three-month residency of artists Marlin de Haan, Jonas Leifert, Paula Pedraza, Franziska Pierwoss and Anna R. Winder as guests of Urban Künste Ruhr in the Ruhr region. As residents at the House of the History of the Ruhr in Bochum and with a focus on performance in Duisburg and Essen, the artists explored the Ruhr and developed artistic concepts. For the first time, they will present their projects, which are still in development, and invite visitors to exchange ideas.

Thursday, 28.11.2024
18:30-21h, entry from 18:15h
Haus der Geschichte des Ruhrgebiets
Clemensstraße 17, 44789 Bochum

Please register in advance at info@urbanekuensteruhr.de to help us with our planning.

The organiser is the Stiftung Geschichte des Ruhrgebiets.

Programme

18:30h

Welcome

18:45h

Anna R. Winder with Jihye Rhii and Úlfur Logason: Manual

19:15h

Marlin de Haan: Unter Ausschluss von Kriterien

19:45h

Paula Pedraza: Reading

20:15h

Franziska Pierwoss and Jonas Leifert: Der Himmel über’m Revier

20:45h

Talk and conclusion

Zu Gast bei Urbane Künste Ruhr - Jahrgang 2024

In 2024, Urbane Künste Ruhr facilitated six research stays for guest artists for three months each in Dortmund, Duisburg and Bochum. The selected artists are in the Ruhr region from 1 August to 31 October and 1 September to 30 November respectively. During their stay, they develop a context-specific project that will be presented to the public in an exhibition in 2025. The guest artist programme is aimed at artists and collectives who are interested in working in the Ruhr area and in a contemporary perspective on the region and its themes. 

The programme is implemented together with the regional cooperation partners Stiftung Geschichte des Ruhrgebiets and Stiftung Industriedenkmalpflege und Geschichtskultur and with different focal points. The connection to one of the cooperation partners or different focal points creates work opportunities and work locations for different artistic practices as well as different thematic approaches to the Ruhr area. The newly conceived guest artist programme builds on the open-ended residency programme Zu Gast bei Urbane Künste Ruhr, which has existed since 2018, under the same title. Unlike before, the on-site research will lead to an exhibition in the region.

  • Arhun Aksakal

    Arhun Aksakal (*1995 in Offenbach) completed his studies at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main in 2023. He previously studied geology at Goethe University Frankfurt and art at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. In 2019-2020 he received an Erasmus scholarship at the Università Iuav di Venezia. Facilitated through a scholarship of the DAAD, the artist was in the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan in 2018. Arhun Aksakal's artistic practice includes video, photography, sculpture and performance. He is interested in human perception, urban psychology and geographical infrastructures and investigates phenomena of civilizational activity and geological time.

  • Ramona Schacht & Luca Bublik

    Ramona Schacht studied photography in Heidi Specker's class at the HGB Leipzig until 2020, Luca Bublik completed his doctorate at the Bauhaus University in Weimar. Both live in Leipzig. Ramona Schacht's artistic work functions through a collaborative research, in which a dialogically appropriate artistic translation is developed through research and image questioning. Luca Bublik recently worked with the Zentrum für Optimistische Bergbauforschung in Leipzig. In their joint artistic research, the two are interested in the particular constellation of female-dominated work in the former GDR and the Soviet Union and have been working in factory archives in Leipzig, Kyiv and Tashkent since 2020.

  • Anna R. Winder

    Anna R. Winder (*1995 in Aarhus) is an artist, writer, bookseller, and publisher and lives in Berlin. She is part of the b_books collective, which runs a bookshop and a publishing house and is a co-editor of wormhole newspaper. In 2023, she co-founded Fat Vampire Press together with Elbe Trakal.

  • Paula Pedraza

    Paula Pedraza (*1994 in Bogotá) is a performance artist and LARP designer who lives in Düsseldorf. She studied Fine Arts at the National University of Colombia and at the KHM in Cologne. In her artistic practice, she is particularly concerned with decolonial and feminist theories, surveillance architecture and is interested in experimental design and hybrid spatial constructions. One focus of her work is on interactive performance experiences that involve users in activities with the space.

  • Jonas Leifert & Franziska Pierwoss

    Jonas Leifert works as a curator, dramaturge and cultural manager in the Ruhr area. He studied theater and film studies at the FU Berlin and performance studies at the University of Hamburg. His current focus is on initiating artistic projects that address current social issues from the historical and regional perspective of the Ruhr area. Franziska Pierwoss works as an artist in the field of performance and installation. She studied at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig and at the Lebanese University of Beirut. With a strong focus on durational performance and collaborative practices, she develops site-specific installations that create situations of engagement, in which personal and political boundaries are called into question.

  • Marlin de Haan

    Marlin de Haan works as an artist and lives in Düsseldorf. She studied in Rosemarie Trockel's class at the Düsseldorf Art Academy until 2014. She deals with the tensions between bodies and objects in space as well as the possibilities and limits of action areas, performance and narrative formats. She stages spaces, designs objects, installations and texts, realizes performances, happenings and interactions in public, private and art spaces and in various working constellations.

Emscherkunstweg: Catch me if you can – From BernePark to Neustadt

On Sunday, 6 October, 2 to 5 p.m., the last cycle tour of the year will take you along the Emscher Art Trail from Bottrop to Duisburg Nord.

The Emscher Art Trail, our sculpture trail along the now renaturalised Emscher, is best explored in stages by bike. And it is even more interesting to cycle together with guides who provide information about the works, the river and special places along the route. The last opportunity to take part in such a free tour is on 6 October from 2 to 5 pm. This time, the guides will take you from the Theater der Pflanzen, the dasparkhotel and CATCH AS CATCH CAN in Bottrop's BernePark via Zauberlehrling and Slinky Springs to Fame to Neustadt at the Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord. Here, 23 1:25 scale models of demolished buildings in the Ruhr region form a fictitious city that offers particularly attractive perspectives in the late summer vegetation.