dortmunder u CENTRE FOR ART AND CREATIVITY

6
THE DORTMUNDER U –
AN ART AND CULTURE CENTRE
FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
Dr. Andreas Broeckmann
FOUNDING DIRECTOR
Top: Exhibition E-Culture Fair 2010,
Interactive Urban Projection, MediaLAB,
Hogeschool van Amsterdam,
Photo: © Hans Jürgen Landes
Centre: Exhibition TRUST during
ISEA2010 RUHR, Seiko Mikami, Desire
of Code, Photo: © Hans Jürgen Landes
Bottom: Exhibition TRUST during
ISEA2010 RUHR, Opening performance,
Antoine Chessex and Thomas
Ankersmit, Diffusions / Acoustics,
Photo: © Mark Ansorg
During the European Capital of Culture RUHR.2010
the “Dortmunder U – Centre for Art and Creativity”
is being established in the former fermenting and
storage tower of the Dortmunder Union Brewery,
which was built in 1926/27 and is now protected as
a historical monument. From now on a continuous
stream of events, exhibitions and diverse cultural
happenings, involving a unique mix of art, research,
cultural education and creative business, will be
available here to a wide public, whose participation in
the events is especially valued. The Centre is based
on a collaboration between the various users of the
Dortmunder U building: the Museum Ostwall, the
Hartware MedienKunstVerein, the Cultural Office
of the City of Dortmund, the Dortmund University of
Applied Sciences and Arts, the TU Dortmund University,
the european centre for the creative economy
(ecce) and the U Cinema association, operating the
RWE Forum. The Centre is situated in Dortmund, in
the Ruhr Metropolis and in North Rhine-Westphalia
but also has international ambitions and partici -
pates in both regional and international projects.
The building was erected in 1926/27 to a design
drawn up by the architect Emil Moog and was immediately
one of the most imposing buildings in the Ruhr.
It embodied the Dortmunder Union’s importance
as one of the leading breweries in Europe as well as
the equal status that brewing held in Dortmund at
that time, alongside the coal and steel industries.
The four-sided “U” was designed by Ernst Neufert
and added to the tower’s roof in 1968 and has been
an emblem of the city ever since, greeting those
travelling to Dortmund from afar, and providing
a landmark for the city’s night-owls.
Today, after the conversion and renovation by Gerber
Architects, the Dortmunder U is a symbol, for the
city and for the whole Ruhr Metropolis, of new
departures and of the Ruhr’s structural change from
heavy industry to a region in which research and
science, creativity and culture are the most important
resources.
The constellation of the partners and the connections
between their respective work and projects
will shape the aims and objectives of the new
Dortmunder U. Since it was founded after World War
II, the Museum Ostwall has stood for a committed
and enlightened approach to the art of the 20th and
21st centuries, seeing art and aesthetic practice as
central to society and to the life of each individual.
For 15 years, the Hartware MedienKunstVerein has,
with its exhibitions, symposia and workshops, been
promoting and presenting artistic debate around
the current role of media and technologies. As early
as 1998, Hartware proved with its pioneering exhibition
Zones of Desire that the Dortmunder U made
an outstanding setting for the presentation of contemporary
art.
The TU Dortmund University brings specialist competence
to the mix, not only in the fields of art and
didactics but also with expertise from faculties such
as Economics or Urban and Spatial Planning, which
will strengthen the work and discussions going on in
the U. The Dortmund University of Applied Sciences
and Arts will contribute to the U’s programme not
only with its creative results from research and
teaching in its specialist area of design, but also with
a planned Research Institute for the Study of Moving
Images. The latter will take as its starting point
Prof. Adolf Winkelmann’s film installations for the U
and will develop the practical and scientific-theoretical
analysis of digital images and media façades. In
the multifunctional events space of the RWE Forum,
the U Cinema association offers an ambitious film
programme, which is being initiated by the International
Women’s Film Festival Dortmund | Cologne
and which will reinforce the collaborative work between
the various U partners by linking in to the projects
and programmes of the other institutions. The
european centre for creative economy – ecce, that
has already organized the creative economy work of
RUHR.2010 Ltd, is an U partner, whose main task is
connecting regional and national partners, networks
and skills. Finally, the Cultural Office of the City of
Dortmund is setting up a new Centre for Cultural
Education in the U and will bring its years of experience
in connecting people and networking to the mix.
The example of cultural education demonstrates that
none of the partner institutions has a one-dimensional
fixation with only one of the U’s four programmatic
pillars (art, creativity, education, research). All
partners are already active in cultural education and
will be able to consolidate, coordinate and strengthen
their activities with the new cooperative work,
housed under one roof. The same is true of the other
programmatic pillars, which will also be developed
in the shared spaces on the floor for temporary