Verschiedene Orte

Industrial production – in this case steel, coal and beer – defined the economic and urban dynamics of Dortmund for a long time. Unlike many other cities in the Ruhr region, Dortmund has a city centre that has grown organically throughout history, which is why the top-down designs – typical for the transformation process in the 1990s of this postindustrial area – appear less dominant here. Dortmund has altogether six higher education institutions, making it a major hub of science and technology. It is also home to many logistics, information technology and microsystems engineering companies which were either founded in or relocated to the city. Dortmund has roughly 600,000 inhabitants, the largest canal harbour in Europe and also the biggest football stadium in Germany: the Westfalenstadion.  

The exhibition Uncanny Shifts presents a loose path of public art sculptures and installations in buildings located near the main train station in Dortmund. These buildings are from different centuries and have a wide range of functions. The exhibition is inscribed into everyday, organic situations, whose particularities and potentials are explored in collaboration with many partners. In addition to artistic analyses of the present day, the main focus is on the sites’ non-material and physical openness to experiments and to an engaged civil society. All of this sketches a lively portrait of the city of Dortmund’s development in the last 50 years.