ARHUN AKSAKAL

Urbane Künste Ruhr at Ruhrtriennale
Duisburg Inner Harbour
Dani Karavan’s Garden of Remembrance

22.8.25, 17:30–18 Uhr
23.8.25, 17:30-18:30 Uhr
24.8.25, 17:30-18:30 Uhr

Start: Garden of Remembrance, access via Philosophenweg, 47051 Duisburg
No registration required
Note: The performance takes place outdoors – sturdy footwear and weather-appropriate clothing are recommended.

Inspired by military training methods, Parkour emerged as a sport in late 1980s France. Since then, a globally connected community has formed, which understands shared Parkour practice as a tool for urban appropriation and self-empowerment. Drawing from personal experience within this scene, artist Arhun Aksakal uses Parkour in his work as both an entry point and a method for poetic and critical engagement with the urban landscapes of the Ruhr region.

In the serial video work Where Roots Rest and Flowers Fade I–IV, presented across three floors of the Ludwig Tower, a group of Parkour athletes use various sculptures by Ullrich Rückriem throughout North Rhine-Westphalia as settings for their choreographies. Aksakal’s unpretentious staging of the athletes in relation to the artworks of the legendary sculptor — many of which were placed in the region during the 1990s, following the decline of heavy industry — is not only a playful and physically embodied form of mapping the urban landscape. It also offers the artist a way to reconnect with sites from his own childhood memories.

The performance EUROGATE, set in Dani Karavan’s Garden of Remembrance, combines Parkour, dance, and acrobatic movement. Inspired by the architecture of Duisburg’s inner harbor, the piece explores threshold states in public space through repetition, exhaustion, and ecstasy.