Zwischen Erfinden und Erfassen

Traces of the Middle Ages, remains of industrial history, postmodern architecture and recreation for local residents all come together in the collaged cityscape of the Duisburg Inner Harbour. That this little brother of Duisburg’s main inland harbour was once Europe’s largest terminal for storing and handling grain is hardly visible today. The harbour canal was redeveloped in the 1990s into a residential and recreation area according to a masterplan designed by the architect Sir Norman Foster in conjunction with the International Building Exhibition Emscher Park, or IBA Emscher Park for short. Also, many institutions focusing on history are located within this relatively small area, including the City Archive Duisburg, the Centre for Commemorative Culture, the State Archive of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Garden of Memories by artist Dani Karavan.

This exhibition presents primarily new sculptural, conceptual, performative, and audio-visual works by international artists who provide a contemporary perspective on the inner harbour while exploring processes of creating, overlaying and failure.