This is not a church
Manifest 16, the ‘European Nomadic Biennial,’ found its home in Germany’s Ruhr area. More specifically, it activated twelve churches across the cities of Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Duisburg, and Bochum, transforming them into hybrid exhibition and community places that cheekily spoke to the title of its 30th edition: ‘This is not a church.’ Through contemporary art, walks through these cities, architectural interventions (and a bit of basketball), the event proposes new ways to inhabit the numerous churches in the region that have fallen out of use.
Abrade (2022) © Cudelice Brazelton IV | image © Manifesta 16 Ruhr / Anna Jocham
The European Nomadic Biennial comes to Ruhr
The Ruhr region has a complex history within the European framework because of its natural resources. It sits at the meeting of the Ruhr and the Rhine, making it logistically advantageous as an inland port. To get around from city to city, the Manifesta Guide recommends biking, as the Erzbahntrasse, a former freight line turned bike path, not only exemplifies the infrastructural evolution but is also lined with the foliage of the region and offers a glimpse at the Rhine-Herne Canal.
Möglich Unvorhersehbar (2026) © Penique Productions/Sergi Arbusà | image ©Manifesta 16 Ruhr / Ivan Erofeev
‘Pantoffelkirchen’ and other types of churches
Each of the twelve churches that make up Manifesta’s program opens with a bit of history that explains how the structure came to be. Bochum’s Gethsemane-Kirche has written that the modest structure, whose entrance is reached only after passing through a small path lined by a dense garden, was designed by architect Otto Bartning for Protestants after World War II. The goal was not to have a grand structure, but a simple place for worship. Because of this, these churches were built close to their parish, earning them the title of ‘pantoffelkirchen,’ or slipper churches, as in the place is so close, you could reach it in your slippers.
kein Geläut (2026) is the bell-shaped bouncy house outside Bochum’s Gethsemane-Kirche © Marina Naprushkina | image © Manifesta 16 Ruhr / Ivan Erofeev
An inviting inflatable bell
Gethsemane-Kirche was shaped by Anda Rottenberg & Krzysztof Kosciuczuk, two of Manifesta 16’s eight ‘creative mediators,’ the term the institution uses to refer to their curator-like organizers who guide the formation of the event. This church was still in use as a place of worship, which was not a given for all of the event’s sites. With that in mind, they decided to create interventions in the space that reflected the active community around the church.
One was the installation of Marina Naprushkina’s inflatable bell-shaped bouncy house that sits in the front lawn of the space. The bell is the ‘advertising symbol of the Bochumer Verein company,’ which had produced rail wheels in the area, with the playful sculpture both inviting people to interact with the work while also opening a dialogue about labor in the region. Inside, Mehtap Baydu’s work, Anali Kazli – With Mothers with Daughters, is a performance-based work that works with eleven women from the city to cook meals for a large audience. In it, she reflects on the pattern within the Turkish language of naming food after women and body parts. Within the piece, she opens a community-oriented discussion on food and language.
Variation on Godspeed in 4/4 (2026) © TimeWilliam Engelen | image © Manifesta16 Ruhr / Ivan Erofeev
An unused church in the north of Essen
North of Essen, there is St. Marien, which, in contrast to Gethsemane-Kirche, has fallen into a state of disrepair and is no longer an active church. The space is a towering brick building almost hiding behind a park. Pieces of the roof are missing, and parts of the stained-glass windows have broken off. Within, works by Alicja Kwade, SUPERFLEX, Jason Dodge, and others fill the unused space. One piece in particular is William Engelen’s Variation on Godspeed in 4/4 (2026), which consists of tubes hanging down into the space, recalling the church organ. Another interpretation of this instrument can also be found in Abbas Zahedi’s work, Ouranophobia 47051 (2026), located in Duisburg’s Kulturkirche Liebrauen.
