The Nature of Things

""The Nature of Things"" seeks to confront the industrial, urban, historical and natural phenomena that constitute the wasteland of a former Thyssenkrupp factory in Bochum and the Ruhr area, using a minimal gesture of architectural lighting to lit a hill that is located in the middle of this empty lot. A green hill covered with trees and bushes looks natural at first sight, but when getting closer one realizes it actually originates from the remains of the industrial ruins and waste material left by the steel industry that used to be installed there. As time passed by, this hill has been wildly taken over by nature just like the whole 20 hectares around it. A DMX mixer controls the LED lights and animates their color over an almost unnoticeable duration of 20 minutes. By following the light, the visitors will encounter this post-industrial-ruin-hill, which glows at night like a beacon in Bochum. In a room in the former FKT, the installation also presents snapshots of images, sketches and objects that show the research and a collage of different aspects of this area.