Radical Hope. Art and Worker Resistance
The international group exhibition Radical Hope examines how artists from modernity to the present day have approached the theme of worker resistance – documentarily, poetically, critically, radically, in solidarity and from personal experience. In the early twentieth century, art brought working-class struggle against social injustice into focus. From the 1960s, labour struggles influenced artistic practice when artists themselves went on strike.
And beyond the realm of art, resistance against working conditions has, to the present, generated impressive images and practices that move in step with global developments. Gelsenkirchen is also home to a feminist chapter in the history of worker resistance. In the early 1980s, female workers fought for equal pay, thereby becoming part of a European movement which
also included the campaign ‘Wages for Housework’ initiated by feminist artists in Italy. Both positions feature in the exhibition, which highlights various artistic perspectives and practices within the labour movement and at the same time looks at the manifold overlaps between different aesthetics
of protest in art and everyday life.
Programme of events
Opening:
June 12, 2026, 7pm
Join us for a sing-along!
Open casting: 15 June 2026, 4–7 pm at the Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen (Horster Straße 5–7, 45897 Gelsenkirchen). Participants will be selected by a panel of experts.
Singing brings people together, whether at work, during protests or strikes. As part of the joint project Sing Our Songs!, organised by the Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen, the Musiktheater im Revier, and the Catholic Parish of Gelsenkirchen, we are holding open auditions for amateur singers to rehearse and perform with the MiR Opera Choir. As part of the Manifesta 16 + programme, and in conjunction with the Radical Hope. Art and Worker Resistanceexhibition at the Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen, we will rehearse and present workers' songs from around the world to the public on two dates.
The rehearsals and performances will take place in the former Church of St. Mariä Himmelfahrt in Gelsenkirchen Buer.
To register, please email kunstmuseum@gelsenkirchen.de
The songs rehearsed together will be presented to the public on 4 and 9 July 2026 at 7 pm.
Take part in this participatory project and help give a voice to workers from the Ruhr region and around the world.
Sing Our Songs! – a project as part of Manifesta 16 +
July 4 & 9, 2026, both at 7 pm
Place: former church of St. Mariä Himmelfahrt, Goldbergstraße 11, 45894 Gelsenkirchen
Singing has always been a key aspect of worker resistance. In collaboration with Musiktheater im Revier and the Catholic church of St. Urbanus, we invite you to join us in a live act of solidarity as we sing a selection of historical songs. The chosen repertoire will include songs rooted in local history as well as international ones.
Traces of Worker Resistance in the Multilingual Literature of the Ruhr Region
September 23, 2026, 6 pm
Historically, the Ruhr region has been marked by the migration of labour, however, literary accounts of these migration stories have often gone unnoticed. Nesrin Tanç’s lecture (RUB, College UA Ruhr) explores traces of worker resistance in the multilingual literature of the Ruhr region and invites us to discover them as part of the rich regional culture of remembrance.
Film Matinée in cooperation with Schauburg Filmpalast
October 4, 2026, 11 am
Schauburg Filmpalast, Horster Straße 6, 45897 Gelsenkirchen
The film We Want Sex (dir. Nigel Cole, 2010, 108 mins) uses British humour to tell the story of the seamstresses strike at the Ford plant in Dagenham. Led by Rita, they demand better working conditions and equal pay. Despite resistance from their bosses and their own families, the women show themselves to be courageous in their industrial action, a strike that would ultimately come to have historic significance in the campaign for gender equality.
1.15 pm: Reception in the foyer of Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen
2 pm: Tandem tour of the exhibition with Julia Höner & Friederike Sigler
