about the work
Nomanslanding is a sensory experience of transformation. The floating structures move slowly back and forth across the water to create and separate territory. Bridging the waterway the new ‘joint territory’ brings people together to experience, remember and contemplate.
Created by five international artists (Robyn Backen, Andre Dekker, Graham Eatough, Nigel Helyer and Jennifer Turpin) and jointly developed by Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, Glasgow Life / Merchant City Festival and Urbane Künste Ruhr / Ruhrtriennale, Nomanslanding made its debut at Darling Harbour in April 2015, and opened at the Ruhrtrienniale in Germany in September 2015.
Following the long journey from Sydney, Nomanslanding dropped anchor in Duisburg’s former railroad harbour. In Europe’s largest inland harbour, the installation addressed the everyday process of arrival and departure, of ongoing exchange. Nomanslanding was accessible via ramps from the opposite banks; it called upon visitors to transgress boundaries, to leave the ground that seems so stable beneath their feet. Out on the water, the borderline between what is one’s own and what is foreign begins to blur.
german press on nomanslanding
waz westdeutsche allgemeine zeitung
waz translation
weser kurier
die welt
die welt translation
ruhr nachrichten
the rheinische post
credits
International curators: Katja Aßmann, Michael Cohen and Lorenzo Mele.
Co-commissions: Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, Glasgow Life / Merchant City Festival and Urbane Künste Ruhr / Ruhrtriennale.
Constructions and Engineering: Event Engineering
Soundscape Voice Credits:
German female: Bettina Kaiser
German female: Lisa Schoetell
French female: Sophie Leprêtre
Russian female: Gulnara Shayakhmetova
Turkish female: Zeynep Berk
Scottish female: Catherine Elliot
English female: Sarah Ward
Australian female: Julie Ewington, Joyce Watson, Artist
German male: Franz-Josef Kaiser, Artist
English male: Artist
Australian/New Zealand: Mike Floyd, Ian Hobbs, Artist
German reader:
Singers: Cora Schmeiser and others
