RÉMY MARKOWITSCH. WE ALL [Except the Others]

Contamination of nature and culture, forced labor then and now, Hermann Röchling and his legacy: Swiss artist Rémy Markowitsch's multimedia installation WE ALL (Except the Others) in the historic suspension railway workshop illuminates and condenses central themes and significant places in the history of the Völklingen Ironworks.

An emcee and numerous other protagonists lead us from the Hermann and Dorothea slag heaps with the smelter's overburden to today's parking lot and the benzene houses, once the site of the highly polluting coal-value operations, to the apotheosis of the Röchling family in the expansive ceiling painting of the Völklingen Church of Reconciliation. At the site of the repair, the suspension railway workshop, the circles close both literally and figuratively.

"After BEWEGUNG MACHT GESCHICHTE now follows the second milestone of the examination of the history of our place in the anniversary year 150 YEARS OF VÖLKLINGER HÜTTE. With WE ALL (Except the Others), Rémy Markowitsch directs his genuinely artistic gaze at the history and themes of our exemplary setting and contributes with creative exaggeration to a deeper understanding of the ups and downs of the former ironworks," says Dr. Ralf Beil, curator of the exhibition and General Director of the Völklingen Ironworks World Cultural Heritage Site.