49.256180,6.824125

The place behind the geographic coordinates of 49.256180,6.824125 forms the centrepiece of Australian artist Ian Strange’s photographic work for the Urban Art Biennale 2024: the slag heaps of the Völklingen Ironworks, also known as the Hostenbach Alps. These huge, man-made mounds bear witness to the enormous amount of energy liberated during the smelting process. Strange has made this energy part of the creation process, using fireworks to illuminate and photograph the slag heaps at night. This casts them in an ambivalent light, at once joyful and celebratory, but also dangerously explosive. A further layer of meaning is lent by the exhibition location itself: the panoramic shot not only hangs in the burden shed but has also been mounted in front of one of the historic foremen’s houses that were built in 1905/06 for senior employees of the ironworks on the far bank of the River Saar in Wehrden. The raw power of industry is thus projected back into the city.

Christian Jene