Neustadt / New Town
“Neustadt” is an installation consisting of 23 sculptural elements, but also a fictitious city consisting of building models on a scale of 1:25. All these buildings actually existed in the Ruhr area once but have been demolished since the 2000’s, so that “Neustadt” can be read as a monument: It commemorates the past of the Ruhr area, with the various buildings – from a church to residential buildings to a public swimming pool – addressing different urban and social aspects. Sculptures like the one of the Essen adult education centre or the indoor swimming pool in Marl – both once celebrated examples of post-war modern architecture – raise questions about the logic of preservation and demolition. Similar questions regarding urban and landscape planning, but also the handling of resources and the environment in general, are at the core of the whole structural change in the Ruhr area and the renovation of the river Emscher and can be experienced hands-on in these sculptures.
The sculptural installation is located in a green area of Duisburg’s Landscape Park North and forms part of the Emscherkunstweg (Emscher Art Trail), a cooperation between Urbane Künste Ruhr, Emschergenossenschaft und the Ruhr Regional Association. The “model city” was deliberately integrated into seemingly fallow grounds which had been re-greened as part of the International Building Exhibition IBA Emscher Park in the 1990s. A list of the buildings with their dates of construction and demolition, original location, details on architects etc. as well as information about the resulting sculpture can be found on the Emscher Art Trail website:
Julius von Bismarck und Marta Dyachenko
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Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, Emscherstraße 71, 47137 Duisburg