6. Urban Art Biennale 2022

1 May to 6 November 2022

The Urban Art Biennale of the Völklinger Hütte World Cultural Heritage Site is one of the world's largest exhibitions of this anarchic art form that goes beyond conventional white cube aesthetics. Every two years since 2011, the entire area of the Völklinger Hütte becomes a congenial dialogue partner for the art that has developed out of street art and graffiti. Postponed from 2021 to 2022 because of COVID, the 6th edition will finally see numerous artists from all over the world congregating at the Völklinger Hütte once more.

Three major innovations define this year's Urban Art Biennale: 1. More works than ever before have been created directly in situ at the location for presentation. 2. Unlike in previous years, urban artists are increasingly addressing the current world situation and have become decidedly political in their works. 3. This year, for the first time, the Urban Art course leads directly into Völklingen, and programmatically conquers the urban space beyond the World Heritage Site.

“The former Röchling Bank building, which has stood empty for decades, and the nearby Forbacher Passage, otherwise little more than a transit point in the traffic-calmed inner-city area, will be completely redeveloped by the Urban Art Biennale and, as in the case of Benedetto Bufalino's table tennis car, actually be interactively developed,” General Director Dr. Ralf Beil elaborates on what is programmatically new, going on to say: “The giant portrait by urban artist Hendrik Beikirch on the Saarstahl building in the immediate vicinity of the train station is a tribute to the history and performance of the people who once came to Völklingen as ‘guest workers', and who have now had the centre of their lives here for a long time. The Urban Art Biennale sets strong accents both artistically and in terms of content. It plays on and enlivens unused buildings and urban spaces and, at the same time, makes a striking contribution to the collective culture of remembrance.”

In total, around 100 works by 76 artists from 22 countries ranging from Australia, Brazil and China to Indonesia, Russia and Spain are presented at the 6th Urban Art Biennale 2022. There are room installations, sculptures, stencil graffiti, paste-ups, augmented reality applications and large-scale murals to see. And so the Biennale in and around the Völklinger Hütte World Cultural Heritage Site unites every imaginable form of urban art.

All these artists and works were brought together by Frank Krämer, exhibitions director at the Völklinger Hütte World Cultural Heritage Site and curator of the Urban Art Biennale: "The huge site of our former ironworks offers numerous auratic places – huge machines, rust-brown dust walls, and the industrial nature. All these locations are virtually predestined for urban art in situ. For instance, Balinese Wild Drawing has installed his works in the concrete recesses of a coking works, while Dutchman Daan Rietbergen has applied his black mural ‘Unseen' directly to grey steel doors."

Frank Krämer on the overall concept: “Along with the 600 square metre painting by Hendrik Beikirch and the French artists Katre, Obsolettrismes and Sethone, who have transformed the Röchling Bank into a total work of art, our aim of reconnecting the ironworks and the city through urban art is beautifully visible in the Parisian artist duo of Lek & Sowat, who not only play the glass façade of the Ore Shed, but whose adhesive film sentence ‘May the Bridges I Burn Light the Way’ illuminates the very underpass that otherwise separates the plant and the city.”

Rero, who lives in Brazil and whose trademarks are crossed-out capital letters, and his team have applied a gigantic “Hell-O-World” in white to the huge dust wall of the Völklinger Hütte. Whether it also contains the possibility of a “Hello World” within depends entirely on the perspective of the viewer. The work by the Canadian artist Roadsworth also proves that the high art that is urban art consists of facilitating a change of perspective. The roof of the Burden Shed bears the words “Defund the War Machine” in a huge hieroglyphic script. So why is the message almost impossible to decipher and only visible from the viewing platform of the blast furnaces? It would appear to be more a message to extra-terrestrial beings, since both the history of the Völklinger Hütte, where iron and steel were once produced for grenades and helmets, and our present vastly contradict the idea that the war machine” is being stopped globally.

Curator Frank Krämer: “Artists like Roadsworth, Rero or Ampparito, who had a map of Europe mounted directly on the walls of the Burden Shed, seem to respond directly to the current world situation. Other works, such as Zevs' 'The End' wording illuminated by the latest news images, appear in a new light after recent events.”

“We and the artists are not only driven by the horrors of the Ukraine war that currently dominate everything, but also by the drastic background noise of humanity as a whole, which can also be heard in the now almost forgotten armed conflicts of Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria. Back in 2015, Ammar Abo Bakr produced an extremely moving work on the victims of the Yemen war in the ruins of the coking plant of this paradise, which can still be experienced – like numerous other urban art incunabula,” said General Director Ralf Beil.

6. Urban Art Biennale 2022
The artists

1. Adrien M & Claire B & Brest Brest Brest (FR)
2. Jef Aérosol (FR)
3. Ampparito (ES)
4. Ammar Abo Bakr (EG)
5. Philippe Baudelocque (FR)
6. Hendrik Beikirch (DE)
7. Tarek Benaoum (MA)
8. Liu Bolin (CN)
9. Drasko Boljevic (HR/AU)
10. Benedetto Bufalino (FR)
11. Helen Bur (GB) & Bryan Beyung (CA) & Pablo Merchante (ES) & Zane Prater (US) & Axel Void (ES)
12. Case (DE)
13. Codex Urbanus (FR)
14. Cone The Weird (DE)
15. Isaac Cordal (ES)
16. Cranio (BR)
17. Hendrik Czakainski (DE)
18. Deih (ES)
19. Maxime Drouet (FR)
20. Frankey (NL)
21. Les Frères Ripoulain (FR)
22. Frukty (RU)
23. Maya Hayuk (US)
24. Olivier Hölzl (AT)
25. Icy & Sot (IR/US)
26. Jaune (BE)
27. Katre (FR)
28. Lek & Sowat (FR)
29. Levalet (FR)
30. M. Chat (CH)
31. Mambo (FR/US)
32. Mardi Noir (FR)
33. Mentalgassi (DE)
34. Mick La Rock (NL)
35. Filippo Minelli (IT/PT/LB)
36. Stéphane Moscato (FR)
37. Mosko (FR)
38. Obsolettrismes (FR)
39. OX (FR)
40. Pboy (FR)
41. Dan Rawlings (GB)
42. Rero (FR)
43. Daan Rietbergen (NL)
44. Roadsworth (CA)
45. Rocco und seine Brüder (DE)
46. Rouge Hartley (FR)
47. Sethone (FR)
48. SpY (ES)
49. Tanc (FR)
50. Mathieu Tremblin (FR)
51. Vhils (PT)
52. Jan Vormann (DE)
53. Crystal Wagner (US)
54. Mariusz Waras (PL)
55. Wasted Rita (PT)
56. Wayne Horse (DE)
57. Alain Welter (LU)
58. Wild Drawing (ID/GR)
59. YZ (FR)
60. ZEVS (FR)

76 artists from 22 countries

Media guide
Further information, including a map of the Urban Art works, can be found on the media guide to the Urban Art Biennale. Admission is on site using a QR code on a smartphone. The media guide can also be viewed on the website at guide.voelklinger-huette.org, which allows visitors to prepare for and follow up on a visit to the exhibition.

 
6. Urban Art Biennale 2022

The entire area of the Völklinger Hütte World Cultural Heritage Site and the
Urban Art course in the City of Völklingen

1 may to 6 November 2022

100 works of urban art by 76 artists from 22 countries
Including numerous in-situ installations, created especially for their locations at the Völklinger Hütte or in Völklingen town

Exhibition venues: Burden Shed, Ore Shed, roof of the Ore Shed and all outdoor areas of the Völklinger Hütte World Cultural Heritage Site in the city of Völklingen and the former Röchling Bank

Curator: Frank Krämer, Exhibition manager Völklinger Hütte World Heritage Site

Entrance to the Völklinger Hütte World Heritage Site and all exhibitions
Reduced 15 €
Normal 17 €
2-days-ticket 20 €
Children and youths up to 18 years: Free
Students (up to 27 years): Free

Opening times
The whole year, daily from 10 a.m. (except 24, 25 and 31 of December)
winter: open from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. (1 November – 31 March)
summer: open from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. (1 April – 31 October)

Opening times Röchling-Bank:
Daily from 15 to 17 h, Saturday and Sunday 12 to 17 h

Visitors’ Service
Tel. +49 (0) 6898 / 9 100 100
Fax +49 (0) 6898 / 9 100 111
visit@voelklinger-huette.org
www.voelklinger-huette.org