Vom Nutzen der Angst – The Politics of Selection

In the multi-part installation Vom Nutzen der Angst - The Politics of Selection, artist Peggy Buth examines the corporate culture of Friedrich Krupp AG. To this day, it continues to shape the historical contexts and social conditions in the Ruhr region to a particular degree – from the private sphere to urban space. Using archival material, including the Krupp AG works newspaper and testimonies collected from the workers, Peggy Buth asks which story is told by whom and with which images.

The exhibition can be seen in the former church of St. Barbara in Duisburg-Rheinhausen, which was built in the early 1960s on factory land belonging to Hütten- und Bergwerke Rheinhausen AG and is a remarkable example of forward-looking architecture of the post-war period. Named after the patron saint of miners, the church is part of a workers' settlement in the immediate vicinity of the site where, from the late 1980s, the Kruppians' workers' struggles against the closure of their iron and steel works had their starting point.

Peggy Buth works conceptually and process-oriented with a wide variety of media. She often shows her works in the form of spatial installations, which impressively support the complex contexts of her themes. This is also the case in the church of St. Barbara, which itself becomes a 'speaking' part of the installation through its history and form.