Labor Mülheim

The city of Mülheim on the Ruhr in North Rhine-Westphalia exemplarily brings together the specific urbanity of the Ruhr region as a polycentric collection of settlements and the urban, as well as political challenges and potential of a region in a process of structural change. Using artistic and cultural science methods, four teams from the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK)–in collaboration with the cultural organization Urbane Künste Ruhr (Urban Arts Ruhr)–carried out an urban laboratory in Mülheim in 2013, revealing and studying many different layers of the city in the process and making them visible and audible. This book documents the various projects and places them within a wider context. This opens up new approaches to the question of the relationship between art and the city: what role does artistic research play in urban transformation processes, how can it contribute to discursive, as well as esthetic "knowledge" about a city, and not only illuminate social and urban development, but also actively contribute to shaping it?