DORTMUND.- In the context of a planned monument dedicated to so-called guest workers, Urbane Künste Ruhr is organising a three-day festival in Dortmund, Germany. To emphasise the importance of a diverse culture of remembrance, we activate the Nordmarkt, a lively square whose neighbouring streets are associated with key experiences and memories for many Dortmund residents with transnational biographies. Many of the discussions around the selection of a sign of remembrance correspond to important questions posed by Urbane Künste Ruhr: Who owns the public space? Who speaks and is heard? Who is seen and who is overlooked? – While the monument in the city centre is a representative tribute to the achievements of the workers who came to the country, Urbane Künste Ruhr wants to celebrate the coexistence of people with and without a history of immigration today and tomorrow. We celebrate our common future!

For the first time, Dietrich-Keuning-Haus’ political-satirical panel discussion Pentagon with Aladin El-Mafaalani and guests will take place live in public space. On all three days, Havîn Al-Sîndy will perform with intelligent robots, together with pupils from neighbouring schools. Nail Doğan presents Notes from a Box of Chocolates, a theatre play in public space for two actors. The tea ceremony Until our Tea Strainer Gets Dry commemorates the Korean guest workers who immigrated to Germany in the 1960s and 1970s in cooperation with Museum Ostwall. The Kiosk of Solidarity this time is teaming up with KOBER, a counselling centre for sex workers and women in precarious living situations based in Dortmund’s Nordstadt. In floor pieces and stanchions, Cem A. aka @freeze-magazine uses classic information and signalling signs in public spaces and questions their supposed neutrality. His performance Crit Club satirically combines debating and sports. The choristers of the Migrantinnenverein under the direction of Kemal Dinç as well as DJs ÖZ (Özlem Avcı) and Tutku Kaplan will accompany the event with music. The Dortmund bookshop Taranta Babu will be present with a book table.

As is usually the case on the Grand Snail Tour, exhibits at the Nordmarkt also include Kasia Fudakowski’s Palliative Patterns, Nils Norman’s Tablescapes, Lütfiye Güzel’s Local Blackouts, and Sowatorini Landschaft’s mobile mini-golf course Sonne Art Minigolf. Rebecca Racine Ramershoven will present her project Kiss My Anger, which will accompany the Tour in the future. In collaboration with members of the Spanish-speaking community in the Ruhr area, Jordi Colomer has redesigned the tour’s mobile architecture and will present his work New Ruhr Map on site.

Appreciating in Dortmund is a special stop of Urbane Künste Ruhr’s experimental format Grand Snail Tour organised in collaboration with the Monument for Guest Workers project, an initiative of the City of Dortmund. The Pentagon format is a cooperation project between Urbane Künste Ruhr and the Dietrich-Keuning-Haus cultural centre in Dortmund.

The Grand Snail Tour is a mobile action and exhibition project that will be travelling through Germany’s Ruhr region over the course of three years. The project is dedicated to experimental and innovative questions of social coexistence: How can we create places to come together or activate existing spaces? What role does art play in this? The Tour aims to leave a variety of impressions, offer shared experiences, and invite people to join the journey. It is expected to end in Herne in October 2027.

Urbane Künste Ruhr is a decentralised institution for contemporary art in Germany’s Ruhr region that creates and sustainably explores public spaces in various formats. Under the artistic direction of Britta Peters, it initiates exhibition projects for specific locations and situations, programmes for guest artists and the experimental Grand Snail Tour through the region. Many projects take place in collaboration with local, national and international partners. Alongside Ruhrtriennale, Tanzlandschaft Ruhr and Chorwerk Ruhr, Urbane Künste Ruhr is part of Kultur Ruhr GmbH, whose proprietors are the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Regional Association Ruhr and whose headquarters is located in Bochum.