In 2020, we were given the opportunity to intensify our work for “Socioculture for Duisburg” by means of a three-year concept grant from the LAG Soziokultur NRW (funded by the state of NRW) for Lokal Harmonie e.V.. For this purpose, we joined together to form the “Triangle” and have been active together in this form ever since.
One result of our work is this website, where we want to give our activities more visibility. It tells of what has already begun, reports on the present and reflects on the future.
The triangle:
The restaurant Harmonie
Since 2008, an ever-changing space for thought development and for artistic and socio-cultural productions and events in the port district/creative quarter of Duisburg-Ruhrort.
Concept & program venue; theory & theater space; venue for contemporary music, sound art and radio play; production & event space for interdisciplinary performances; production and exhibition space for photographic, cinematic and visual arts; venue for feminist encounter, reflection and propaganda; place of exchange and transformation for LGBTIQ* persons; nucleus for social, (inter-)cultural and (cultural-)political conception and action; cultural powerhouse of the creative quarter Ruhrort.
- Harmoniestraße 41 – 47119 Duisburg-Ruhrort
- contact[at]lokal-harmonie.de / www.lokal-harmonie.de
The Stapeltor Sociocultural Center
The STAPELTOR is Duisburg’s newly developed socio-cultural center in the heart of the city. A former textile department store is becoming a place for everyone: While the basement is already bubbling with events, construction is still underway on the upper floor. The Stapeltor is run by 47 e.V., whose members managed the renovation of the premises during the pandemic and have now been working on a conceptual mix of in-house programming and cultural participation by neighbors and the independent cultural scene since the opening in September 2021.
- Stapeltor 6 – 47051 Duisburg-Mitte
- info[at]stapeltor.de / www.stapeltor.de
ART AND CULTURAL STUDIES DUISBURG E.V. / KUKST DU
KUKST DU is a non-profit association whose name stands for Kunst- und Kulturstudien Duisburg. We have set ourselves the goal of actively helping to shape the cultural landscape – especially in Duisburg, but also beyond – with the help of our own experience, expertise and ideas. This applies to the past, present and future: to inscribe the stories of immigrants and other marginalized groups in the history of the city and the country, to be a reality of cultural production now, and thus to create better conditions for the future.
We want to provide a platform for and strengthen our own, the diverse realities of life in urban society and the people with whom we work and would like to work with in the future. This platform is mobile and always docks at art and cultural locations in analog and digital Duisburg.
- kukst.du[at]outlook.de / www.kukstdu.de
Where from, where to, how long?
“Duisburg would basically be the most exciting place in the Ruhr region. But it’s the most unfortunate.”
This was the opinion of Prof. Roland Günther in 2018 in the film we produced => “Dystopolie”(LINK: Web), whose quote may introduce our little time travel.
- unfortunate marketing campaigns cover up the lack of ideas of a city policy of yesterday. Cultural stagnation, loveless exploitation of the inner city and racist displacement of undesirable population groups.
- The most exciting thing about Duisburg is the people who live and work here, with their diverse backgrounds, experiences and realities of life. Their involvement in a wide variety of social, political and cultural groups and initiatives are, in our view, all in their own way of socio-cultural significance for the past, present and future of our city. With more socioculture for Duisburg, we want to offer this diversity a stage and stand up in solidarity for cultural participation and representation.
As cultural workers and activists committed in and for Duisburg, we have been working together for many years in different contexts – from 2015 to 2020 especially intensively and with long strategic breath in the initiative “DU erhält(st) Kultur”(LINK: Web). We interfered critically and at the same time constructively in urban and cultural-political processes and participated in the development of a municipal cultural development plan in order to finally turn the demand for a socio-cultural center into a real political possibility.
After the closure of the “Eschhaus” at the end of the 1980s and the end of the “Fabrik” in Neudorf in 2003(LINK: mustermensch.org), it was quiet for a long time about socio-culture in the not-quite-a-million city of Duisburg. After the founding of the association “Mustermensch e.V.” (2005), the self-organized open-space pub “T5” (2008) came into being for a few months – which was closed by the city after only a few months due to a lack of permits and parking spaces. Initiated by the open space campaign “DUityourself” (2011) and the district and project store “Syntopia” in Hochfeld (since 2014), the demand for a sociocultural center was repeatedly carried on the streets with night dance demos. Houses were occupied, talks were held and concepts were written. But neither in the vacant old fire station in Hochfeld nor anywhere else did the city want to give up space. The paper of the cultural development plan of the city (2016) was patient for a few more years.
After renewed unsuccessful attempts to free the Alte Feuerwache (Old Fire Station), which was intended as a socio-cultural center, from its vacancy – and the municipal decision to repay 2.1 million euros in subsidies after all – some groups took up the long-standing demand again and founded the temporary store project “47” in the old town(LINK: vimeo). From there, we finally landed in STAPELTOR just before the pandemic at the end of 2019. And a lot has happened elsewhere, too: The DJäzz had to close and the store project “Roter Stern Ruhrort” moved to the city center. The “Syntopia” has reopened regularly and next door the “Zentrum für Kultur Hochfeld” is being built. From here on is present and wants to be experienced and made before it can be told.
We are in solidary contact and will continue to work for structural support of socio-cultural places on municipal, state and federal level – and from our places we will work on a plural society without exploitation and discrimination.