Recap ›Shifting Grounds – IN COMMON‹

On the second day of the summer festival ›Shifting Grounds – IN COMMON‹, the slag heap and PACT Zollverein became an open space for exploration and activities, which visitors could explore at their own pace, pausing at individual locations scattered across the site.

To settle in, Clarisse Akouala invited visitors to a coffee ceremony, roasting coffee beans and preparing coffee on site. The walk-through spatial installation ›Recreational Successions‹ by Mascha Fehse created a platform for encounter, exchange, and tranquility.

On the middle part of the slag heap, the Afrodiasporic poet and spoken-word artist Orli Yomi read texts from her debut poetry collection ›Sonnenwenden‹, which explore the themes of pain and healing, Black femininity, tenderness, and personal growth.

The Zymbal concert by Nadzeya Karakulka created a musical soundscape amid the summer greenery of the slag heap. At ›local dancing‹ by Clara Reiner, René Alejandro Huari Mateus, Jacob Bussmann, and Frédéric De Carlo, the dance floor became a space for instant tradition: drawing on queer traditions, they imagined group dances that seem to have travelled through time.

There was plenty more to discover: in a relaxed gathering at the Kuppelkiosk, the BRACHE team presented the latest issue of their literary magazine and shared selected texts accompanied by music.

Visitors then had the opportunity to explore the acoustic reflections and resonances of the slag heap on a Sound & Listening Walk with artists Michael Akstaller and Jan St. Werner, bringing the surroundings to life through acoustic impulses.

Together with a choir of FLINTA* people from Essen and the surrounding area, Deva Schubert translated the moment of digital disturbance – the glitch – into the architectural space outside of PACT in her live encounter ›Glitch Choir‹. The result was a moving, contemporary reimagining of a lament.

In the foyer of PACT Zollverein, Hood Cuisine and Flintasy invited visitors to a free Creative Dinner. Inspired by the history of Zollverein and the connections between people, places, and resources, the PACT foyer was transformed into a communal hub for culinary pleasure. After exchanging impressions and enjoying several artistically presented courses, visitors had the opportunity to end with the evening piece of ›Magec / the Desert‹ on the PACT stage. In their dance performance, Radouan Mriziga explored the vast, dry landscapes of the desert as geographies of wisdom.

The day ended with a presentation by the Sound Practice Research Collective on the slag heap, which extended the sounds of the ›SKIA‹ installation, already audible throughout the day, through a performative intervention.