With Zollverein and its industrial past as a source of manifold inspirations, they have established sculptures and installations, some of which are permanently present on the site.
Alf Lechner: Konstellation D4
Although it weighs tons, Alf Lechner’s sculpture “Konstellation D4” rests inconspicuously on the lawn in front of the former hoisting machine hall in immediate proximity to the famous Twin Pithead Frame. The sculpture from the group of works entitled “Konstellation D1-D8” is positioned at an angle of 45 degrees to the rectangular ground plan of the coal mine buildings.
It interrupts the two axes, along which the facilities are aligned, and thus directs the viewer’s attention towards the pithead frame. The focus of this 16-ton artwork is on steel and its physical properties.
Konstellation D4UNESCO World Heritage Zollverein
Art break at Zollverein
Ansgar Nierhoff: Sculptures
Three artworks by sculptor Ansgar Nierhoff, which are in dialogue with the architecture and the outdoor area of the Zollverein World Heritage Site, are located on the Art Meadow opposite the former electrical workshop: a two-piece standing sculpture, a block sculpture and the sculpture “Das Paar” (The Couple).
The sculptures “Von einem Block” (From One Block) and “Zweiteilige Standskulptur” (Two-piece Standing Sculpture) correspond with the visual axes of the coal mine, which were a central design element for the industrial architects Fritz Schupp and Martin Kremmer.
ScultpuresUNESCO World Heritage Zollverein
ScultpuresUNESCO World Heritage Zollverein
Together with the sculpture “Das Paar”, the artworks on the Art Meadow testify to the force that is necessary for processing steel...
ScultpuresUNESCO World Heritage Zollverein
...and visualize the working process of sculpting through cuts and traces of the forging hammer on the surface.
Maria Nordman: LA PRIMAVERA
The light, which in spring awakens nature from hibernation, plays an important role in Maria Nordman’s art. Her work “LA PRIMAVERA” (meaning “the spring”) in the tower passage of the former boiler ash bunker is an art space offering intensive self-experience.
Only a small gap allows light to filter into this artwork, which visitors enter one at a time. People experience this place in a different way each time, depending on the weather and the position of the sun – in a space that only becomes an artwork the moment the visitor engages with its tranquility and solitude.
La PrimaveraUNESCO World Heritage Zollverein
Thomas Rother: Zollverein Art Shaft
Thomas Rother is a writer, sculptor, object designer and spatial artist. Since 1990, he has been living and working in the former carpentry at Shaft 1/2/8. Rother‘s workshop is a fascinating microcosmos, where everything is about the heritage of the coal mining era.
Amongst others, the artist works with materials such as dust, ash and coal, and he uses tools and other mining objects as printing blocks for prints on paper and canvas.
Kunstschacht ZollvereinUNESCO World Heritage Zollverein
Thomas Rother in his studio
Young-Jae Lee: Ceramic Workshop Margaretenhöhe
Shortly after the decommissioning of the Zollverein coal mine, Korean ceramist Young-Jae Lee and her team set up a workshop at the Zollverein World Heritage Site in 1987.
The delicate jars, bowls or jugs, which are hand-crafted at Zollverein, follow a clear, timeless and unmistakable design vocabulary. Individual items by the master ceramist, who is internationally renowned and has won several awards, are coveted by collectors from all over the world.
Keramische Werkstatt MargaretenhöheUNESCO World Heritage Zollverein
Young-Jae Lee at work
Ulrich Rückriem: Forest of Sculptures
The birch-covered slag heap between Zollverein Shaft XII and the Zollverein Coking Plant is an almost fairytale place.
Five stone sculptures by sculptor Ulrich Rückriem stand there, framed by unique industrial nature, branching paths and relics of the steel and coal industry.
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The “Castell”, a split stone block about two metres high and ten by ten metres wide standing on a clearing, is the main artwork. Four openings between the massive stone blocks allow the visitor to enter the centre of the artwork. Although Rückriem’s artworks are geometrically arranged, a slight movement is also discernible in the powerful sculptures.
Hall 8. An art and exhibition hall at Shaft XII
The former high-pressure compressor hall of the Zollverein coal mine is today a modern art and exhibition hall at the heart of the World Heritage Site.
Hex: Asteroid PF751ZH
In front of the former administration building of the Zollverein coal mine, an asteroid has hit the ground: Asteroid PF751ZH. The steel giant was created from hundreds of individual plates welded together by the artist Hex, Fellow of the Royal British Society of Sculptors.
Dirk Paschke and Daniel Milohnic: Works swimming pool
Where coal was once refined into coke, a bright blue swimming pool now serves as a meeting place in summer. Since 2001, the Zollverein works swimming pool, consisting of two overseas containers, has been inviting people to relax and swim in the middle of the impressing facilities of the former coking plant during the summer holidays in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Works Swimming PoolUNESCO World Heritage Zollverein
With this “social sculpture”, the artists Dirk Paschke and Daniel Milohnic from Frankfurt have given a completely new function to a place, which until the 1990s had exclusively been shaped by work characterized by noise and heat: they have created a place of leisure and recreation.
Works swimming pool, Zollverein Coking PlantUNESCO World Heritage Zollverein
Jonathan Speirs and Mark Major: Monochromatic Red and Blue
Every night, the Zollverein Coking Plant turns into a large artwork, when the light installation “Monochromatic Red and Blue” immerses parts of the decommissioned facilities in red and blue light after dusk.
With their installation, the two British lighting designers Jonathan Speirs and Mark Major impressively stage the stately architecture of the Zollverein Coking Plant. At the same time, they visualize the transformation of the facility into a place for the arts, culture and leisure. The former pusher machine track, which is now filled with water, serves as a reflective design element in this context.
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Observatory: Stairway to Heaven
The Stairway to Heaven is located on the edge of the Coking Plant grounds. The walk-on sculpture, made of tiger concrete, is so high that at its top people can look from the middle of Zollverein Park across the Cologne-Minden line, one of the oldest railway connections in Germany, as far as the districts surrounding Zollverein.
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The shape of the ladder alludes to the underground shafts.
Jörg Armbruster: The towns are built for you
The triptych, which has a size of 16 by 5 metres and consists of 81 panel paintings, can be found in the former central workshop at the Zollverein Coking Plant, now the Grand Hall Zollverein.
Die Städte sind für dich gebautUNESCO World Heritage Zollverein
The selected motifs of the artwork, which were created between 2007 and 2011, show people as well as old and new working environments in the Ruhr Area. The title “The towns are built for you” originates from Bertolt Brecht‘s book of poems “Lesebuch für Städtebewohner” (The Reader for City Dwellers).
Ilya und Emilia Kabakov: Palace of Projects
A luminous artwork full of ideas and ideals: the walk-in “Palace of Projects” by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov presents fictitious projects for a better world in the former salt depot of Coking Plant 61.
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The snail-shell-shaped installation shines like a lantern in the night in the dark salt depot. In 16 rooms, projects of fictional characters are waiting to be discovered.
