Healing Complex (2018-ongoing) is a new meeting place, initiated by artist Irena Haiduk. At the artist’s proposal, the former church of St. Bonifatius in Gelsenkirchen-Erle, which once served local miners. will be reimagined in close collaboration with locals and a broader community of stakeholders.
The history of the Ruhrgebiet is a history of migrations. The area’s diverse populations share many customs across cultures, religions and nationalities. The use of community ovens and spas is common to most. Inspired by ancient complexes that combined art and healing, Haiduk proposes to co-design a multifunctional oven powering three functions: communal baking, the making of art and recovery from everyday stresses through sauna rituals. In keeping with the artist’s attention to traditions of economic innovation, the complex will also develop its own transaction techniques rooted in non-monetary exchange and frottage imaging.
In contrast to common architectural approaches, visitors will be asked to influence the redesign of the church into a communal center. The initial exhibition period allows the ideas proposed by the artist to be tested and shaped by those who will use them. An extensive public programme will engage participants of all ages: concerts, bake-off parties, recreational offerings and hands-on workshops. A discussion series will explore international examples of art-powered economies, their social value, and educational potential.
We invite all locals, interested parties and experts from all walks of life to take direct and active part in this transformation. Together we can re-discover the building as a place of encounter and exchange that contributes to a vital social infrastructure.
- Öffnungszeiten
The Healing Complex is currently on winter break and will be open again from 25 March 2023.
- Website
Auf der Website des Healing Complex finden sich Informationen zur Idee und Entstehungsgeschichte des Ortes, aktuelle und vergangene Veranstaltungen sowie Interviews und Portraits von Künstler*innen und Beteiligten.
- Address
Ehemalige St. Bonifatiuskirche Gelsenkirchen-Erle
Cranger Straße 338-342
45891 Gelsenkirchen
Events
Healing Complex: Summit – A day for debating and sauna
Bread Lamps
What could we do with old bread? Well, lamps! We will explore the translucent properties of bread and create lamps with scraps of bread, old lamps and lanterns. Bring your old lamp and give it a new life or create a portable lamp with a peculiar and delicious shape.
The workshop will be in English language.
Registration is required at: nt@urbanekuensteruhr.de
Baking Home
Baking home is a sensorial experience, to initiate a dialogue about migration and its relation to our body senses. We come together in a safe space as migrants and locals, to share traditional recipes with each other and taste what the others call home. Playing with ingredients, we will cook together and share stories that connect us to our roots. You are invited to bring the flavors of your land to bake and cook with us at the Healing Complex.
The workshop will be in English language. Curated by: Edanur Seçim and Ayla Pellicer
Registration is required at: nt@urbanekuensteruhr.de
Molding and candle workshop with Malte van der Meyden
"I have a special fascination for materials that we encounter every day, not because they are particularly beautiful, but because of their practicality." Malte van der Meyden in an interview with The Dorf
In his work, conceptual designer Malte van der Meyden deals with form-finding processes and the handling and perception of objects and materials that we encounter every day. In the workshop he invites the participants to get to know his practice of molding: With found objects from the surroundings of the Healing Complex, the workshop participants make their own molds, from which candles are cast in the next step. The collected objects are thus given a completely new form and function as candles.
Ferienwoche im Healing Complex
Neben dem Backen verschiedener Brote und Kuchen steht bei diesem
Angebot in den Herbstferien das Gestalten mit verschiedenen
Materialien im Vordergrund. Dabei können herbstliche Laternen,
abstrakte Formen aus Salzteig oder großformatige Papiermodelle
des Healing Complex entstehen. Und natürlich gibt es auch viel
Raum für Eure eigenen Ideen!
4.10.–7.10.
täglich von 10–14 Uhr
Für Kinder ab 7 Jahren
Anmeldung unter
+49 170 37 12 86 6
kunstvermittlung@urbanekuensteruhr.de
Creative workshop for children and young adults
Kneading, baking, creating, designing - and in between a common bread break! Inspired by the special atmosphere of the Healing Complex, the topics of baking and creating come together in this workshop. Together with experienced workshop leaders, children can get creative with various materials and even bake their own break bread.
Starting from the age of 7 or accompanied.
No registration required.
Public Baking – Special: Baking Bread with Samuel Treindl
At the summer festival of the Emscherkunstweg, the artist Samuel Treindl made special bread molds out of ceramic with the workshop participants. All those who have made a bread mold can pick it up on Sunday and bake an individual loaf on site together with the artist. Equipment is also available for participants without their own mold to bake with.
The offer is free of charge, registration is not required.
Ever since, communal baking and cooking – whether in the form of fireplaces, ancient healing sites or village ovens – has held the potential of gathering and community. To kick off things at the Healing Complex, Urbane Künste Ruhr has installed a baking oven in the middle of the former church of St. Bonifatius, which is operated every Sunday and invites all interested to bake, eat and exchange.
Creative workshop for children and young adults
Kneading, baking, creating, designing - and in between a common bread break! Inspired by the special atmosphere of the Healing Complex, the topics of baking and creating come together in this workshop. Together with experienced workshop leaders, children can get creative with various materials and even bake their own break bread.
Starting from the age of 7 or accompanied.
No registration required.
Bike tour along the Emscherkunstweg
The Healing Complex is located not far from the Emscher. The history of the river and its significance for the entire Ruhr area as a former sewage canal were part of the artistic exploration of the region. On two Sundays, guided bike tours of the Emscherkunstweg start at the Healing Complex and then lead to works by Olaf Nicolai / Douglas Gordon & Mogwai, Rita McBride, Mischa Kuball / Lawrence Weiner, Piet Oudolf / Gross.Max, Andreas Strauss.
The tour is organised by the Emschergenossenschaft.
Information on the bike tours along the Emscherkunstweg and registration at www.emscherkunstweg.de
Creative workshop for children and young adults
Kneading, baking, creating, designing - and in between a common bread break! Inspired by the special atmosphere of the Healing Complex, the topics of baking and creating come together in this workshop. Together with experienced workshop leaders, children can get creative with various materials and even bake their own break bread.
Starting from the age of 7 or accompanied.
No registration required.
Public Baking – Special: Pizza baking with Angelo
The oven is on! From now on, Urbane Künste Ruhr invites you to bake together every Sunday from 11am—6pm. Bring your dough, ingredients and recipes or try what we bake on site and get to know the Healing Complex!
The offer is free of charge, registration is not required.
Ever since, communal baking and cooking – whether in the form of fireplaces, ancient healing sites or village ovens – has held the potential of gathering and community. To kick off things at the Healing Complex, Urbane Künste Ruhr has installed a baking oven in the middle of the former church of St. Bonifatius, which is operated every Sunday and invites all interested to bake, eat and exchange.
Creative workshop for children and young adults
Kneading, baking, creating, designing - and in between a common bread break! Inspired by the special atmosphere of the Healing Complex, the topics of baking and creating come together in this workshop. Together with experienced workshop leaders, children can get creative with various materials and even bake their own break bread.
Starting from the age of 7 or accompanied.
No registration required.
Artistic Workshop with Samuel Treindl
As part of the event Emscherkunstweg. The Festival, a full-day workshop with the artist Samuel Treindl will take place on the premises of the Healing Complex. In a playful way, we will approach the sculptural qualities of architecture and make unusual ceramic baking moulds for baking bread. A bread bar created by Samuel Treindl will be set up as a temporary installation on the forecourt of the church. Visitors will have the opportunity to linger here on bales of straw and self-cast pieces of furniture and to taste the bread freshly baked on site.
Holidays at the Healing Complex: Weekly Workshop II
Dough and clay - kneading, baking, shaping, designing and in between a common break! Inspired by the special atmosphere of the Healing Complex, the themes of baking and shaping come together in this holiday programme. Together with experienced workshop leaders, children can get creative with various materials and even bake their own bread.
from 7 years
Registration at kunstvermittlung@urbanekuensteruhr.de or on 0170 37 12 866
Open day workshops
Thursday, 30.06. | 14.07. | 21.07. | 04.08., each from 10 am to 2 pm
from 7 years
Without registration
Holidays at the Healing Complex: Weekly Workshop I
Dough and clay - kneading, baking, shaping, designing and in between a common break! Inspired by the special atmosphere of the Healing Complex, the themes of baking and shaping come together in this holiday programme. Together with experienced workshop leaders, children can get creative with various materials and even bake their own bread.
from 7 years
Registration at kunstvermittlung@urbanekuensteruhr.de or on 0170 37 12 866
Open day workshops
Thursday, 30.06. | 14.07. | 21.07. | 04.08., each from 10 am to 2 pm
from 7 years
Without registration
An Evening with Anna Viebrock
As part of our Summer School, Irena Haiduk and the stage designer Anna Viebrock will develop different ideas for the future of the Healing Complex together with participants and make models out of different materials. After the workshop day, we will talk with Anna Viebrock about her artistic practice and relationship to things.
Summer School
During Summer School, local and international students are invited to participate in the design process of the Healing Complex. A series of workshops will result in a material workshop and a studio for aesthetic and economic research. Each group will design and present their own proposals, which will be taken into account in the further use and conceptualisation of the project.
Radtour entlang des Emscherkunstweg
The Healing Complex is located not far from the Emscher. The history of the river and its significance for the entire Ruhr area as a former sewage canal were part of the artistic exploration of the region. On two Sundays, guided bike tours of the Emscherkunstweg start at the Healing Complex and then lead to works by Olaf Nicolai / Douglas Gordon & Mogwai, Rita McBride, Mischa Kuball / Lawrence Weiner, Piet Oudolf / Gross.Max, Andreas Strauss.
The tour is organised by the Emschergenossenschaft.
Information on the bike tours along the Emscherkunstweg and registration at www.emscherkunstweg.de
Bauen−Backen−Baden
with Yasemin Utku, Anja Dietmann and Charlotte Pohle
In the recurring conversation format Bauen−Backen−Baden (Building−Baking−Bathing), we address three important topics of the Healing Complex: Building is representative of the question of how a place has to be designed in order to use it together for different activities. Baking and bathing refer to the idea of artist Irena Haiduk to develope an economy that combines the activities of baking and sauning via a central oven. The sauna remains an idea for the time being − it is to be developed together with those who want to use it in the future. With the possibilities of the existing building and a hot stove, the process begins.
In the first episode, we discuss with our guests how unused (church) buildings can be revitalised and new places for the city community can be created. What offers have to be created so that not only interest in the project is aroused, but the Healing Complex can also remain alive in the long term?
We have invited urban developer and spatial planner Yasemin Utku, whose research focuses on structural change in the Ruhr region and the potential for conversion of existing buildings, to take part in the discussion. As co-founder of the newly opened Kunstverein Mittelrhein in Neuwied, Charlotte Pohle gives us an insight into her motivation: Why does Neuwied need a new art association and what exactly is happening on the site of the former aluminium factory? As editor of Pfeil Magazine, Anja Dietmann has dedicated issue #15 to the artistic and cultural history of bread. With her, we talk about bread as currency and baking as a unifying element in different traditions.
Moderated by Britta Peters, on we want to take a closer look at the idea of the project together on June 19th based on these three different perspectives and discuss the potentials for the Healing Complex.
Artist Talk with Irena Haiduk and Britta Peters
Opening Healing Complex (2018—ongoing)
To kick things off, we are installing a large baking oven with a workshop area in the middle of the building. In the future, concerts, baking events, recreational activities and hands-on workshops for all ages will take place here, where baking and sauna customs can be shared across cultures, religions and nationalities.
From 5 pm:
Opening with greetings from Britta Peters (Artistic Director Urbane Künste Ruhr), Andrea Hankeln (Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of NRW), Stefanie Reichart (Regionalverband Ruhr) and Vera Battis-Reese (Management Kultur Ruhr GmbH) and introduction to the Healing Complex by Britta Peters
From 6 pm:
Baking and Hanging Out with Irena Haiduk (with help from Isam Tifour and Hadi Ghader from Heiße Fatiera). Unfortunately, Prem Krishnamurthy cannot be there due to illness. We wish him a speedy recovery. Instead, we look forward to Vladimir Ivkovic in conversation with Irena Haiduk.
From 7 pm
End of the evening with DJ set
The church will be open from 1 pm.
Other events around the opening:
Saturday, 4.6.
12 pm—4 pm
Open creative workshop with children and young people
Sunday, 5.6.
12 pm—3 pm
Open creative workshop with children and young people
4 pm
Artist talk with Irena Haiduk and Britta Peters
