Over the past few years, the Völklinger Hütte World Heritage Site has conducted and presented extensive research into forced labourers at Völklinger Hütte. The internationally renowned French artist Christian Boltanski has now created a memorial for the people who were forced to work at Völklinger Hütte. The result is an emotional work of art that keeps the memory of these people alive. The major installation by Christian Boltanski in the Völklinger Hütte sintering plant engages with the issue of forced labour in a new and deeply moving way.

Over the course of the Second World War, 12,393 men, women and children from twenty countries were registered as forced labourers at Völklinger Hütte. Of these, 261 lost their lives, sixty of them children and infants. These people can be encountered between the claustrophobic walls of this archive of memories, with its seemingly endless stacks of archive boxes.

Here and there, visitors catch a glimpse of a number, or of black trousers and jackets piled into a mountain of clothes. Meanwhile, the names of the forced labourers are whispered from all corners of the installation, sending shivers down the spine. Boltanski’s installation instantly transports visitors to another world.

Intallation Data:
Christian Boltanski: Forced Labourers – Memorial at Völklinger Hütte
Sintering plant, 2018
Mixed media, metal archive boxes, clothes, light, sound (the names of the forced labourers whispered in Völklinger Hütte) Dimensions: 3.3 x 6 x 18 m

Duration of the exhibition: from 1st November 2018 until unlimited