I’ve just had a weird dream…
It was night, yet me and all my colleagues were at the museum. We hopped on a car and drove through the big metal door. The air was crispy and Amsterdam was deserted.
We arrived to a fantastic place.
Volklinger Hutte || UNESCO’s Industrial Heritage Site
A dystopian atmosphere loomed upon us.
It might have been the CCTVs towering the entrance…
SPY || Urban Art Biennale 2019 || Volklinger Hutte
…or the surveillance cameras blinking behind Mark Zuckerberg’s eyes.
They were the only thing ‘alive’…
Mentalgassi || Urban Art Biennale 2019 || Volklinger Hutte
…in this post apocalyptic scenario.
Volklinger Hutte || UNESCO’s Industrial Heritage Site
Buildings stood like skeletons of metal projecting up into the misty sky.
A bare wasteland, empty now that Mother Nature had ended what the fire had not.
Dan Rawlings || Urban Art Biennale 2019 || Volklinger Hutte
The site was surveilled by an army of little men, …
Isaac Cordal || Urban Art Biennale || Volklinger Hutte
…who informed us that we were chosen to brave the empty factory.
Street Art Today team at Urban Art Biennale 2019 || Artist: Ottmar Horl
Should we reach the top of the highest chimney, a message would be sent back to 2019.
A message that would call on humans to be kind to one another and save the fauna and flora with which they shared the planet.
Volklinger Hutte || UNESCO’s Industrial Heritage Site
It wasn’t going to be easy, warned us the beekeeper.
He himself has failed in sustaining the global human population, which could no longer eat fresh products after the decline of bees.
Case MaClaim || Urban Art Biennale 2019 || Volklinger Hutte
Likewise, workers have failed in stopping capitalism, which eventually proved incompatible with the survival of life on Earth.
Monkeybird || Urban Art Biennale 2019 || Volklinger Hutte
Headless men stood in our way to the derelict coal tower…
Levalet || Urban Art Biennale 2019 || Volklinger Hutte
…and Sirens’ songs lured us while we climbed the highest chimney.
YZ || Urban Art Biennale 2015 || Volklinger Hutte
But if you are reading this message it means that we made it to the top.
Volklinger Hutte || UNESCO’s Industrial Heritage Site
>> This is the storyboard of a series of stories I wrote for Instagram. The location is the “Volklinger Hutte“, a 600.000 sqm ironworks in Germany. This industrial site, which dates back to 1883, was the first monument of heavy industry to be classified by UNESCO as World Cultural Heritage Site. Nowadays, it hosts concerts and exhibitions, such as the Urban Art Biennale, which is at its 5th edition this year.
