Landmarks

Richard Serra's slab atop the Schurenbach slag heap and the Rungenberg slag heap elevate themselves over the post-industrial landscape and, in so doing, permanently alter the region's silhouette. As ’visual aids’, they at once act as points of orientation, of memory and of the future. The 1999 exhibition ’Kunst setzt Zeichen’ [’Art sends signals'] in the Ludwig Galerie - Schloss Oberhausen provided a comprehensive overview of IBA Emscher Park's contribution to landmark art.

The invitation to artists has also changed the perspectives of the directors of IBA Emscher Park. The encounter with the American sculptor Richard Serra, during his stint at and on the Schurenbach slag heap in Essen, led to new and sometimes radical positions. There are large-scale and permanent works by Dani Karavan in Nordstern Park and in Duisburg's inner harbour and other projects in which regional artists spoke out through installations, such as Jan Bormann's Spurlattenturm at the Waltrop coal mine and Mischa Kuball's light installation around the Akademie Mont Cenis in Herne and the West and East Pole in Kamp-Lintfort and Bönen. In 2007, a follow-up occurred with artist Otto Piene's ’Geleucht’ on the Rheinpreußen slag heap in the Lower Rhine . In 2009, several elements of a horizon observatory will be installed on the Hoheward slag heap that will in turn welcome a re-appreciation of the night-time sky over the cityscape.

These sites of industrial culture and the art projects of IBA Emscher Park have generated new images of the Ruhrgebiet. Within the framework of the European Capital of Culture RUHR.2010, themes and artistic strategies of IBA Emscher Park will again be embraced and continued, such as the renewed visualisation and staging of the slag heaps and pits of the Ruhr area.