Video stills: NLN Productions | Editing by Konstantin Pütz
In the Ruhrgebiet, centuries of coal mining have shaped the region dramatically. One example for that are the „Halden“. Enormous artificial hills, that consist of material considered unprofitable after being extracted from the ground. These landfills now dominate the landscape of the region. Set on the Rungenberghalde in Gelsenkirchen, this project reflects on the relationship between people and landscape, about reconnection and reclaiming of spaces that were once hostile wastelands.
Two performers act on separate peaks of the landfill, while a field of actions, questions, sounds, and handovers unfolds between them.
Football chants turn into romantic gestures, whispered messages pass through multiple couriers & are carried away by helium balloons. The links might be physical but the gorge between the two summit upholds. Communication stays fragmented—answers don't fit, chains break—and yet the body continues to search for connection.
The work understands "repair" not as restoration, but as the creation of conditions for continued coexistence—provisional, open, incomplete. It celebrates fragmentary conversation as a practice that not only allows for change, but affirms it.
In collaboration with Yuri Nakai
Location: Rungenberghalde Gelsenkirchen
Duration: 4 hours
Supported by: SBYD Lab, Folkwang University of the Arts, Goethe Institute Japan
Camera: Nils-Lasse Nowak
Singing: Merle Pütz
Additional Performers: Betsy Contreras, Chloe Challal, Klara Günther, Camillo Guthmann,