The landscape and identity of Catalonia and the German region of the Ruhr have been profoundly altered over the last 150 years ever since the Industrial Revolution. In recent decades, both territories have been greatly affected by the decline of traditional industrial sectors. The Ruhr has had to face the decline of coalmining and steelworks while in Catalonia the textile industry gradually shut down. However, since the crisis both the Ruhr and Catalonia have become aware of industrial heritage as a major cultural resource for the sustainable development of these European territories.
The itiniterant exhibition is a project by the Regional Association of the Ruhr which explains the Route of Industrial Heritage of the Ruhr, a regional system for cultural interpretation and diffusion consisting of 1,000 visitable industrial remains in a territory with 5 million inhabitants. A tourist itinerary of 400 km connects key points in the Route, including museums and monuments, active industries, initiatives from local artists and workers’ colonies with different architectural and urban styles.
The exhibition can be visited in Catalonia between 2017 and 2018 in the MNACTEC, the Museum of the Vidal Colony in Puig-Reig and the Oliva Artés Centre of the Museum of History of Barcelona.
