Urban Art Biennale 2024
Dear visitors,
Welcome to the Urban Art Biennale at the Völklinger Hütte World Cultural Heritage Site.
Offering an alternative to the traditional white cube aesthetic, the Urban Art Biennale is one of the world’s largest exhibitions of this anarchic art form. First held in 2011, the biennale sees the entire Völklinger Hütte site enter into dialogue with the art deriving from street art and graffiti. Postponed from 2021 to 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this sixth biennale once more draws artists from all over the world to Völklinger Hütte. More works than ever before have been especially created in situ for this exhibition space and the urban artists are more political, responding more explicitly to current world events than in previous years.
A total of 100 works by 76 artists from 22 countries await you. The exhibition trajectory traverses the compound of the World Cultural Heritage Site Völklingen Ironworks, from the Erzhalle [ore shed] and Möllerhalle [burden shed] to the Hochofenplatz [Blast Furnace Square], landscape garden "Paradise", and Kohlegleis [coal track]. For the first time, the roughly 40-minute-long route leads directly into Völklingen. Starting at the front entrance to the World Heritage Site, arrows spray-painted on the ground lead you into town to works by 12 artists, including the huge portrait of a former metallurgical worker by Hendrik Beikirch and the long-deserted Röchling Bank. The latter, after years of standing vacant, has been provisionally reopened to the public as a walkthrough artwork. For a game of the truly unusual kind, Benedetto Bufalino invites you to enjoy his table-tennis table adapted to span three parked cars.
All the works of the Urban Art Biennale are marked on the map, which you can use to find your way along the route.
To help you prepare for and follow up your visit, we recommend that you check out the media guide, which is also available on the website, guide.voelklinger-huette.org.
We hope you enjoy the exhibition!
The World Cultural Heritage Site team