Uncanny Shifts

“My very existence in the world has changed, and trying to reassemble its different pieces puzzles me, to say the least.” from Land Sickness by Nikolaj Schultz

The main train station in Dortmund is used by 130,000 people every day. In Germany, if a city has more than 100,000 inhabitants, then it is considered to be a big city. This fictive city of the train station, north-west of the city centre, serves as a vibrant focal centre of the exhibition Uncanny Shifts by Urbane Künste Ruhr as part of this year’s Ruhrtriennale.

In and around the train station, further art works are inscribed in specific buildings and their uses, housed in different types of architecture from various eras: from the Ev. Stadtkirche Sankt Petri from the 14th century, to the sociocultural centre Dietrich-Keuning-Haus constructed in 1982 on the northern side, to the Dortmund U, which was turned into an exhibition space in the former Union brewery for the cultural capital Ruhr.2010. The temporary use of vacancy in the Brückviertel draws attention to the old town district close to the station. Künstler*innenhaus Dortmund is taking part with an exhibition in its own spaces. Further sculptural works can be experienced in the urban space, while the ongoing performance The Troubadour by Ari Benjamin Meyers, expanded as a co-production with Manifesta 16 Ruhr, extends the exhibition’s reach into the western Ruhr Area.

Threatening events are repeating themselves, fundamental orders are shifting, and familiar environments are changing. In view of the ecological, social and political interrelationships of our time, the uncanny could be considered a state that describes the prevailing mood of the present. Elected representatives with political responsibility downplay or deny climate change and do not take adequate measures to reduce carbon emissions and ensure the population and cities are ready for the heat. Scientific findings are questioned publicly, and opinions based on pseudo-science are treated as if they had equal validity. In the same vein, many people now only vehemently fight for what they think are their own interests. The philosopher Eva von Redecker refers here to “phantom property”, which includes, for example, the notion of a nation or home country as personal property that must be defended at all costs.

Although the beginning of the decline of solidarity in society began earlier, the Covid-19 pandemic and society’s repression thereof that followed acted like an accelerant for far-right conspiracy theories. The rest is achieved by the permanent barrage of fake news, hate and agitation on digital platforms, the near infinite power of the tech billionaires, along with the internationally well-connected American MAGA movement: In many parts of the world, democratic institutions and basic social values are under pressure, while racism, misogyny, the hate of queer people and violence increase. 

These shifts are uncanny because they shake the foundations on which our society is built. Suddenly there seem to be people who think the Earth might be flat after all. We can clearly hear the ground underneath our feet quaking, groaning and cracking. These shifts feel frightening, because the Earth is getting warmer and warmer and the increasing frequency of extreme weather situations is causing catastrophes. The consequences of climate change seem so incalculable that we as individuals can’t comprehend their scope of impact. And what also makes us shudder with fear is that what we are familiar with is coming back to haunt us in a lifeless form—as a version of everything that already exists, created by artificial intelligence.

The exhibition presents predominantly newly commissioned sculptural, installation-based and performative works by international artists across fifteen projects. Engaging with their surroundings in both abstract and immediate ways, the works respond to a complex world with new inventions, curiosity, prudence, beauty and melancholic analysis. By placing Dortmund main station at its centre, Uncanny Shifts is embedded in an everyday urban setting that is explored together with numerous local partners in terms of its distinctive qualities and potential. In doing so, it also creates a vivid, sketch-like portrait of Dortmund's city centre and the transformations it has undergone over the past fifty years.

With works by Ellinor Aurora Aasgaard & Zayne Armstrong, Anushka Chkheidze, Aleksandra Domanović, Kein schöner Archiv (Michael Annoff & Nuray Demir), Katrin Mayer, Hans Ostapenko with MNPL, Ziran Sha Pei, Joanna Piotrowska, Neda Saeedi, sakasaka, Silke Schönfeld, Transsolar, UH HUH HER, Driant Zeneli and The Troubadour by Ari Benjamin Meyers in co-production with Manifesta 16 Ruhr

Artistic Director: Britta Peters / Curated by Alisha Raissa Danscher and Britta Peters.

Some projects were developed as part of the programme Zu Gast bei Urbane Künste Ruhr.
An exhibition by Urbane Künste Ruhr for the Ruhrtriennale 2026.