The mining heap on the site of the Zollverein colliery, one of the most striking legacies of mining history, is now a constantly growing natural landscape. As the venue and centre of the ›Shifting Grounds‹ festival, the mining heap becomes a future laboratory, a place for exchange, participation and a space for diverse regeneration. The summer festival is dedicated to sustainable social practices and new, post-coal mining narratives. How can the slag heap as an ambivalent negotiation space at the interface of industrial romanticism, heavy metal pollution and local recreation area change views of exploitation and coexistence? How can other futures be imagined here?

›Shifting Grounds‹ is designed to spark discussions over a picnic, and also includes guided botanical tours and performances both on site and on the PACT stage. Commissioned artistic works by Mascha Fehse, Sergiu Matis, Daniel Kötter, Marlene Helling and others will be specially developed, adapted and expanded for the mining heap.

This project is part of the Alliance International Production Houses, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media & Kunststiftung NRW