A good-shaped diamond is hard to find

In the three monochrome wall paintings in Bochum, Dortmund and Essen, Stefan Marx (*1979) creates pithy large-scale epigrams emblazoned on the façades of buildings. The fragments of sentences, based on omissions, elegiacally resonate, echoing both poetic and the melancholic aspects of everyday life in the Ruhr Area. The three murals form a triptych symbolizing the past, present and future of the Ruhr Area. While the wall in Bochum represents a final farewell to the region’s history of mining, the past is left behind on the one in Dortmund, commenting on the neoliberal working society that still shapes life in the present. Referencing Woody Guthrie’s soundtrack, Essen’s wall honours the little man’s everyday life and his search for a better future. In Miner’s Song an eager miner sings about all of the things that are hard to find: rubies, pearls, diamonds and – if you are to believe Guthrie – a woman with a great figure! And so the busy miner must continue, Sisyphus-like, to hammer and dig for his happiness. And likewise for the region as a whole: the Ruhr Area must continue to work hard, seeking a new destination, far away from industry and mining. What that is remains open, because after all – a good-shaped diamond is hard to find!