A Multitude of Things to do in Essen this June

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Come and visit DIGITAL SIGNAGE EXPO 2010, Europe's largest digital signage event, and experience in addition over 300 cultural projects and 2,500 events taking place in Essen and the surrounding area!
 
The city of Essen has been selected as the European Capital of Culture 2010 on behalf of the whole Ruhr region. The Ruhr area encompasses 53 cities and 5.3 million inhabitants. Located in the heart of Europe, the region is the third largest urban agglomeration in Western Europe and will be proudly presenting its unique cultural heritage and the change it is undergoing to a larger international audience throughout 2010.
 
The Ruhr area was dominated by the coal and steel industry for more than a century, but has now successfully transformed itself into an attractive and dynamic polycentric metropolis, defined by the cultural diversity of residents from over 170 nations, its growing creative and service sectors, internationally renowned cultural facilities, spectacular industrial monuments and a huge variety of recreation areas. The presentation of European Capital of Culture to Ruhr was in recognition of the area’s transformation from manufacturing into a cultural metropolis.
 
Throughout 2010, over 300 cultural projects and 2,500 events will take place in Essen and the Ruhr area., so there will be lots more taking place in June aside from KIOSK EUROPE EXPO 2010 and DIGITAL SIGNAGE EXPO 2010. The Ruhr area is now the home of 19 universities, 100 concert houses, 120 theatres and over 200 museums and festivals.
 
The area consists of 53 cities, of which Dortmund (587,000 inhabitants), Essen (583,000 inhabitants), Duisburg (497,000 inhabitants) and Bochum (382,000 inhabitants) are the largest.

Highlights to See and Experience in 2010
 
The programme of RUHR.2010 European Capital of Culture consists of more than 300 projects and over 2,500 events that will be taking place all over the Ruhr area throughout 2010. Visitors to the Ruhr will thus get a multitude of opportunities to get to know the new metropolis, its cultural heritage and cultural potential, no matter whether they love comedy shows or classical concerts, allotment gardens or landscape parks, corner bars or gourmet restaurants – all of which are features of the Ruhr’s diverse culture.
 
New Ruhr Museum at World Cultural Heritage Site Zollverein
 
The former coalmining complex Zeche Zollverein in Essen, a World Cultural Heritage site, is home to the Ruhr Museum and was the stage for the RUHR.2010 Grand Opening celebrations where the German President Horst Köhler took part.
 
The new Ruhr Museum will present the natural and the cultural history of the Ruhr region in an extraordinary new museum. Located in the former coal mine Zeche Zollverein, a World Cultural Heritage Site and until 1986 the largest coal mine in the world, the building complex itself impresses through its size and architecture. Endless suites of halls, some of them hundreds of metres long, cyclops-like machines, and massive windowless concrete bunkers add up to a very special experience of space. The interactive exhibition will describe the underground work of the industrial pioneers, life in the industrial age, wars and reconstruction, environmental damage and the blue skies above today’s Ruhr region.

Museum Folkwang
 
The renowned international art museum was reopened this year in a new light-flooded exhibition building designed by the London architect David Chipperfield. 2010 exhibitions include:

• The most beautiful museum in the world - The Folkwang Museum to 1933, a reconstruction of the museum’s spectacular pre-war art collection (March 20 - July 25, 2010)

2010lab.tv
 
2010lab.tv is the European Capital of Culture RUHR.2010’s virtual online lab and the first bilingual cross-genre and –topical web-TV platform that links art, culture, creativity and practitioners to form a web 2.0 community.
 
Old synagogue as house of Jewish culture
 
The former Essen synagogue is the only major freestanding synagogue to have survived the Second World War. A major cultural and architectural monument, the future house of Jewish culture will become a new meeting place for Jewish culture.
 
Odyssey Europe
 
Six of Europe’s leading dramatists will re-write Homer’s Odyssey to be presented in a theatrical marathon in six different theatres across the area. Viewers can take part in a symbolic “odyssey” by travelling from one theatre to the other during a single weekend.
 
Ruhr Views, April 24 - October 24, 2010
 
An exhibition of outstanding contemporary photography, including works by world famous photographers Andreas Gursky and Hilla Becher, at the Zollverein colliery, Essen. 11 photographers will show their personal view of the Ruhr in a process of transformation.
 
Dortmund “U” opening, May 9, 2010
 
The city of Dortmund gets its landmark back. The former brewery will be renovated according to plans by Gerber Architects and will become a centre of art and creativity. The Ostwall Museum will move onto the fourth and fifth floors while the sixth floor will be given to special exhibitions. The top floor will be reserved for events, a cafe lounge and rooms for the 2010lab project launched as part of RUHR.2010.

Shaft Signs, opens May 22, 2010
 
Hundreds of gigantic balloons will be simultaneously launched to a height of 80 metres above the ground for 9 days. The balloons will mark the location of the shafts of former coalmines.

EMSCHERKUNST.2010, opens May 2010
 
An open-air art exhibition on the Emscher river island, featuring internationally known artists.

Ruhr-Atoll, opens May 2010
 
Art islands on Lake Baldeney will be inviting visitors to explore the new islands in pedal boats under the motto “art is energy, energy is movement”.
 
Each island is a world of its own and ties in with the theme of ‘art – science / energy – ecology’ – be it in a contemplative way like Kazuo Katase’s and Michael Wilkens’ ‘tea house’; a scientific way like the ‘ice berg’ by Andreas Kaiser and physicist Lars Kindermann; an ironic way like Ilya and Emilia Kabakov with their ‘project to save the natural resources’; or in a political way like Andreas M. Kaufmann und Hans U. Reck with their ‘submarine’. The installation will particularly aim to address visitors who usually have little access to contemporary art or the current energy discussion.
 
European Cultural and Creative Industries Summit, Brussels, June 2010
 
Once a year, RUHR.2010 discusses current developments in the cultural and creative economy with leading representatives of the European creative industry and politics. Workshops provide an opportunity to share experiences and define political demands and visions.

ExtraShift, June 19, 2010
 
The shortest night of the year turns into the longest party of the year, offering a gigantic art and performance festival in 40 venues and presenting former industrial sites in a new light. Street theatre, music, art, dance, artistry and light art will all take place at former mines and stockpiles, inside steel factories and production sites. The Night of Culture impressively uses mighty industrial monuments as backdrops, letting furnaces, gasometers and other treasures of industrial heritage appear in a new light.
 
The Henze Project.

New music for the metropolis, throughout the year 2010: a homage to Hans Werner Henze, one of the world’s greatest living composers and pioneers of contemporary music, covering Henze’s complete oeuvre including opera, ballet, orchestral music and chamber concerts in different venues.
 
Please note all images included in this article are courtesy and copyright of Ruhr.2010. Please visit http://www.essen-fuer-das-ruhrgebiet.ruhr2010.de for more information.