Next Generation Opel

INSTALLATION | EXHIBITION

Video-Installation with 2 screens
2010 / 30 Min

The Opel plant in Bochum represents the second phase of industry in the Ruhr region, its establishment a response to the loss of the large coal mines. But now Opel is caught in the maelstrom of the international financial crisis. Bochum is anxious to preserve the plant; its loss would signal drastic changes for the city. The negotiations regarding the future of the Opel plant have unsettled the city like almost no other event has done before.

NEXT GENERATION OPEL examines the future of the city and the dreams of its young inhabitants. It’s crucial that we engage with Opel’s young employees and trainees – those people who do not yet have thirty years of work behind them, but who are at the start of a career and whose future is uncertain before it has even begun.

What is their vision for the future? How are they experiencing these dramatic weeks and months? What plans – if any – are they still able to make, what hopes remain?

2011  — Premiere / Theater Unten / Schauspielhaus Bochum (Germany)

2011 — DOKFEST 2011 / 28. Kasseler Dokumentar- und Videofest (Germany)

2011  — blicke 2011 / 19. Filmfestival des Ruhrgebiets (Germany)

2011  — Exhibition „Mit 17 – Jung sein in Deutschland“ / Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn und Leipzig / Ausschnitte der Videoinstallation „Next Generation Opel“ (Germany)

Next Generation Opel

INSTALLATION | EXHIBITION

Video-Installation with 2 screens
2010 / 30 Min

Directors: Ulrike Franke, Michael Loeken
Director of Photography: Jörg Adams
Location Sound: Axel Schmidt, Filipp Forberg
Edit: Bert Schmidt

A project of Schauspiel Essen and Schauspielhaus Bochum, in coopertion with Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung and Kulturhauptstadt Europas RUHR.2010