A landscape and culture project on the River Seseke and its subsidiaries

In keeping with the RUHR.2010 maxim of "Change through Culture - Culture through Change", this project is committed to transforming industrial areas into "life-enhancing living spaces" through the media of art and culture. An innovative integration of engineering, ecology and art has provided the Lippe Association with an opportunity to transform the River Seseke from a wastewater channel into a more natural body of water.

The artist Danuta Karsten from Recklinghausen has contributed a work entitled “Steps to the Körne” to the exhibition. Her platforms act as an access point to the Körne Brook in Dortmund-Kurl and can also be used as chairs and tables or as a bed.
Photo: Danuta Karsten

The change will permanently enhance this region in the district of Unna in terms of both its development potential and its general attractiveness. The final phase of this metamorphosis of the river is to be accompanied by artists through their creative contributions to an exhibition entitled "Walking on Water". Along the Seseke and its subsidiaries, sometimes in, sometimes at and sometimes above the water, the artists will relate to the newly created nature zone with interpretive artefacts and landscaping elements, underlining and visualising the transformation process to which the environment has been subjected.

Joint cultural project

The collaborative link created between the riparian local authorities physically interconnected by the river, namely Lünen, Bergkamen, Dortmund, Kamen, Bönen, the City of Unna and Unna District, is worthy of the title "Walking on Water", given that this is the first time that they have been brought together in a joint cultural project combining so many facets of ecology and art.

Idyllic places and non-places

The river landscape is to be newly and permanently anchored in people's consciousness with the aid of 12 works of art on the Seseke and its subsidiaries. The sites selected are significant river sections that represent different stages of development within the transformation process: e.g. the point at which the Seseke joins the Lippe, the idyllic and already extensively naturalised River Körne or an extreme example of a "non-place" under a motorway bridge in Kamen.

Landscape art, interactive projects, enigmatic creations

The designs of the international group of artists working under the direction of Billie Erlenkamp highlight the transformation of nature and the countryside with a varied range of concepts and designs. Hence, visitors will find examples of landscape art (Thomas Stricker, Susanne Lorenz, Diemut Schilling), interactive projects in dialogue with the observer (Jeroen Doorenweerd, Danuta Karsten) and a walk-on sculpture (Winter/Hörbelt), not to mention humorous and enigmatic creations (Bogomir Ecker, Tom Groll, Markus Ambach).

Most of the works will remain

Most of the items are to remain as permanent features - such as the bridge created by the duo Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth who are also responsible for designing the Angerpark Landmark in Duisburg. Other installations such as the exhibition barge created by the "Löbbert Pupils" of the Münster Academy of Art are planned as temporary installations for the period of the exhibition from June to September 2010. The exhibition is to be augmented by a cultural programme that includes guided tours, bicycle excursions and a programme of events.