URBAN ART BIENNALE 2024

Dear Visitors,

Welcome to the Urban Art Biennale 2024 at the UNESCO World Heritage Site Völklinger Hütte.

It is now the seventh time that the Urban Art Biennale has returned to the World Heritage Site, thereby cementing its position as a leading platform for international urban art. This year’s Biennale has an even younger and more participatory flavour. Inaugurated in 2011, the Urban Art Biennale has continued to provide a forum for artists and major figures from the scene to animate the World Heritage Site Völklinger Hütte and the surrounding urban landscape with their distinctive works.
Yet the Urban Art Biennale is more than just an exhibition – it is also an invitation to participate in a dialogue. By promoting the creation of art in public spaces and engaging with the concept of legal and illegal art, the Biennale also embraces the topic of post-vandalism and thereby encourages reflection and discourse. Over the years, the Urban Art Biennale has presented some 300 artists, thereby placing the World Heritage Site Völklinger Hütte firmly on the map of international urban art.
The huge site of the former Völklingen Ironworks offers numerous auratic locations that seem as if preordained to enter into a dynamic and productive symbiosis with urban art – amidst gigantic machinery, against rust-brown walls and amongst resurgent nature. The city of Völklingen will also play a central role in this year’s Urban Art Biennale, with the exhibition going back to the roots and taking possession of the ironworks’ urban surroundings.
The works on show in this year’s Urban Art Biennale are indicated on the map. This is intended to help you find your way along the urban art trail. However, it merely provides a suggested route, and some of the works are located beyond the marked trail. Feel free therefore to discover the works in your own way!
The media guide can also be viewed at guide.voelklinger-huette.org. This will help you prepare for, and follow up on, your visit to the Biennale.
We hope you enjoy the exhibition!

The team of the World Heritage Site Völklinger Hütte