Stiftung Zollverein

Change through Culture – Culture through Change: ZOLLVEREIN 2010

Where Germany’s and Europe’s industrial heart was once beating, art and culture
are now flourishing: The UNESCO World Heritage Site Zollverein reflects the rich
variety of the Ruhr Metropolis. Today, the once “most beautiful and most modern
coal mine in the world” and Europe’s largest coking plant are the best known industrial monument and simultaneously the centre of the culture and creative industry.

For the Ruhr Metropolis Zollverein is a Magnet for Visitors

The former coal washing plant is a starting point for visitors to the Ruhr Metropolis. On a 58-metre long gangway, visitors ascend to the RUHR.VISITORCENTER, where they start on a journey into the cultural variety of the region. 150 years of industrial history up to the present are exhibited in the Portal of Industrial Heritage. Equipped with state-of-the-art media technology, it features the former industrial sites and today’s visitor attractions of the Capital of Culture region.
When watching the panorama film RUHR 360º, the visitors are right in the
middle of the Ruhr Metropolis. The route through the old surface facilities of the once most modern and largest coal mine leads past gigantic conveyor belts and machines. During guided tours along the historical Heritage Trail visitors experience the workings of a colliery and can take a – virtual – look into the interior of the machines for the first time. Underneath the visitor level, the Ruhr Museum presents the fascinating history of the Ruhr area in a permanent exhibition on three levels. Its modern exhibition concept combines the natural and cultural history and shows regional myths and
phenomena, the enormous dimension of the geological history, pre-industrial traditions, the long history of industrialisation just as well as its consequences and future prospects.

Capital of Culture Ruhr.2010

Art: Contemporary Art Ruhr is the platform for Contemporary Art. 3rd and 4th July 2010 and 30th and 31st October 2010.
Theatre: Promethiade. He gave fire back to mankind: The myth of Prometheus inspired generations of poets, musicians, visual artists. International directors and ensembles stage new works at three World Heritage Sites (Epidauros/Greece, Istanbul/Turkey and Zollverein/Germany). 23rd July to 7th August 2010.
Cultural event: ExtraShift Zollverein transforms into a midsummer night’s dream with installations, projections, media art, and music. Including the German- Turkish cooperation project "Sound Industries". 19th June 2010