Essen, once at the heart of Germany’s coal and steel industry, has transformed into a city known for both culture and green spaces. This shift is reflected in landmarks such as the UNESCO-listed Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex and the Villa Hügel estate, former home of the Krupp family, as well as in parks and the Baldeneysee Lake.

The city is home to major cultural institutions including Museum Folkwang, the Aalto Theater, Philharmonie Essen and the Grillo-Theater, alongside contemporary venues such as Pact Zollverein and the Ruhr Museum.

Manifesta 16 Ruhr engages with Essen’s post-war architectural heritage across three venues in the city centre, the Zollverein area and Frohnhausen, including a landmark church by Gottfried Böhm.

Duisburg sits at the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr, where water and industry have shaped the city’s character. Home to the world’s largest inland port, it remains a key logistical hub in Europe. Districts such as Marxloh and Bruckhausen reflect this industrial past, while projects like Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord – a former ironworks turned public park – show how these sites have been adapted for recreation and culture.

The city’s cultural life includes the Lehmbruck Museum, known for its sculpture collection, and the Museum Küppersmühle, which presents contemporary art in a converted industrial building. The Theater Duisburg hosts productions by Deutsche Oper am Rhein, while the filmforum Duisburg at Dellplatz combines a historical archive with a regular cinema programme, including the Duisburg Film Week.

Gelsenkirchen was once one of Europe’s most productive coal-mining centres, earning the nickname “City of a Thousand Fires” from the glow of its coking plants. Today, former industrial sites such as Nordstern Colliery and the impressive post-war cultural buildings Musiktheater im Revier reflect the city’s transformation, while slag heaps and disused railway lines have been reclaimed for the public and turned into green parks and viewpoints.

This history of industry, migration and renewal continues to shape Gelsenkirchen’s neighbourhoods and multicultural communities.

Manifesta 16 Ruhr responds to this context by focusing on residential districts and the city’s distinctive “slipper churches” – neighbourhood churches built close to where workers and their families once lived. The biennial’s headquarters are located in the former parsonage of St. Josef in Ückendorf, alongside Thomaskirche, St. Bonifatius in Erle and St. Anna in Schalke-Nord.

Bochum is one of the Ruhr Area’s leading centres for research, culture and education. Beyond its industrial heritage, the city is shaped by neighbourhoods that reflect the region’s ongoing social and economic transformations.

Its cultural landscape ranges from the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum and the Jahrhunderthalle to the Ruhr University, the Schauspielhaus Bochum and the Kunstmuseum Bochum. Together, these institutions highlight Bochum’s rich mix of industrial history, contemporary art and student life.

Manifesta 16 Ruhr focuses on four churches in residential districts shaped by migration, economic change and evolving social structures. The biennial takes place across four venues in Bochum, including a post-war emergency church and a historic cultural church in the former working-class district of Goldhamme.