PREVIEW: Landscapes of an Ongoing Past

It is only through a human perspective that nature becomes a landscape into which meanings may be inscribed. Past events continue to have an effect, and landscapes can embody memories, fears or longings. A landscape shapes how we think. It is intertwined with our perception of the reality we live in and it influences our worldview. Although it is an already existing environment, it also emerges from the memories, emotions, and associations we attribute to it.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Salt warehouse Archive

The exhibition “Landscapes of an Ongoing Past” establishes a dialogue between a major work by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov and a younger generation of artists from former socialist Eastern Europe on the premises of Zollverein UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since 2001, “The Palace of Projects” by the Kabakovs has been installed in the Salzlager (salt warehouse) of the preserved coking plant and industrial processing complex, an impressive site of cultural heritage located in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The two-story, snail shell-like artwork, made of simple wood and linen, holds 61 proposals for a better future and is one of the Kabakovs’ largest permanent installations. In loose correspondence with it, existing as well as newly commissioned artworks by 17 artists explore traces of unrealized utopias, focus on questions of artisanal and industrial production, or reflect on the relationship between architecture and nature. With a view to the post-industrial landscapes of the Ruhr region, Landscapes of an Ongoing Past is dedicated to the state of the present between decay and hope. The venue itself, the former salt warehouse, has been used for all kinds of events since 2001, especially for theater performances and readings. In these cases, however, “The Palace of Projects” has operated more like a backdrop, and after more than 20 years, attention to the inner life of the huge installation has unjustifiably waned a little. For the first time, the site-specific exhibition “Landscapes of an Ongoing Past” brings “The Palace of Projects” in dialogue with other contemporary visual arts installations while also allowing visitors to enter its interior. The location showcases the rise and fall of industrial visions. It highlights that culture plays a crucial role in remembering and understanding the past while also managing periods of transition, an aspect deeply connected to the current threat to Ukraine – its landscape, its people, and its culture.

Works by: Marta Dyachenko, Uli Golub, Jana Gunstheimer, Nikita Kadan, Zhanna Kadyrova, Nino Kvrivishvili, Yuri Yefanov, Driant Zeneli and a model after Fedir Tetianych (1942-2007) realised by Bögdana Kosmina & Bogdan Tetianych as well as a digital project by Pixelated Realities

In the Cinema Pavilion: Tekla Aslanishvili, Anna Daučíková, Sven Johne, Dana Kavelina, ruїns collective, Emilija Škarnulytė, Borjana Ventzislavova

Photo: Marta Dyachenko, Floating Island (2020), Detail, Courtesy Dittrich & Schlechtriem, © Marta Dyachenko, photo: Jens Ziehe

Info: Artistic Director: Britta Peters, Curators: Alisha Raissa Danscher, Tatiana Kochubinska, Yevheniia Moliar, Britta Peters, Salt warehouse, Heinrich-Imig-Straße 11, Zollverein UNESCO World Heritage Site, Essen, Germany, Duration: 16/8-22/9/2024, Days & Hours: Wed-Sun 12:00-19:00, www.urbanekuensteruhr.de/