Totem with Magpie - Genius Loci
Date:
2016
Ref:
7131.02
Materials:
Aluminium
Dimensions:
442 x 148 x 90 cm (3 + 2 AP)
Exhibition history:
2016 Emscherkunst Triennale, Germany
Courtesy:
Lucy + Jorge Orta
In the series Genius Loci, Lucy + Jorge Orta were invited to conceive three allegorical sculptures in dialogue with the post-industrial landscape of the Ruhr region, commissioned for the third edition of the Emscherkunst Triennial (2026), a public sculpture trail extending over 50 kilometres along the Emscher Valley.
Two of the three sculptures are now permanently installed in Dortmund-Hörde, on the banks of Phoenix Lake, an artificial basin created on the former site of the Phoenix steelworks. Totem with Magpie evokes a new generation growing up amid this industrial metamorphosis, while Bird Woman marks the site of a former viaduct linking the eastern and western parts of Phoenix, as if emerging from the embers of coal and steel.
The third figure The Observer, like an oracle, bears witness to the transformation of a landscape long scarred by the coal and steel industries. Initially installed at Kokerei Hansa, a former coking plant in Dortmund-Huckarde, the sculpture observes nature gradually reclaiming the industrial ruins.