Mechtenberg

Bochum, Essen, Gelsenkirchen

Located in the south of Gelsenkirchen, the Mechtenberg is, at 80 metres, one of the few natural hills in the central Ruhr area. Already a familiar feature in local history, the wooded peak is crowned by a Bismarck tower. Surrounding this hill of agricultural and cultural significance, are 290 hectares of different agricultural landscapes which are now typical of the entire Emscher region: Fields with agricultural operations, earth-covered landfill sites, a moist biotope in an area with subsidence caused by mining, residual forest, concreted sections of the Emscher river system, a network of high-voltage cables, a heavily used main road (B 227) and railway lines all give rise to an image in the centre of the region which is typical of the Ruhr area.

In combination with sections of the Rheinelbe coal mine, this landscape on the southern edge of regional green corridor C should be retained and carefully developed into a local recreation area for the adjacent areas of town. The project began with studies for the outline planning of regional green corridor C in the Emscher Landscape Park at the beginning of the 1990s. A planning seminar was attended by artists, landscape architects, citizens and representatives of the cities and the regional assembly, who developed ideas for temporary and permanent uses of the Mechtenberg. Other plans envisaged opening up the area with footpaths and cycleways, by bridges, the safeguarding of the biotopes, the reassessment of the landscape through reforestation, tree planting and orchards as well as connecting the areas with the Emscher Landscape Park network.

One result of the process saw the eastern slope of the Mechtenberg used as a stage for temporary landscape art during the IBA Emscher Park. Artists supplied it with engravings, flower pictures and topographical earth sculptures with floral screens. Finally, a red, solar-powered ‘position light’ marks the summit of the hill. In their installation ‘Powerlines’ (1999), landscape artists Martha Schwartz and Markus Jantsch (London) illustrated the final staging of the resulting LandArtGalerie, using art and sound installations to create an exciting arrangement from partially overlapping structures of striped, narrow corn fields and high-voltage cables. In addition to the temporary artworks, a permanent artwork has also been created on the Mechtenberg in the shape of the ‘Klangfeld der Steine’ by artist Thomas Link (Waal).

Today, the area around the Mechtenberg is once again used for agriculture and is available for new productions, e.g. as part of the European Capital of Culture events in 2010.