Coal Museum

Reflecting Points, a continuation of Open Mind Places in Sauerland, is a collaborative initiative by BDA Kassel for documenta fifteen. Scattered throughout Kassel during the summer of 2022, these installations fostered spaces for encounters and meaningful communication. By intertwining art, environment, and community, the project aimed to inspire environmental action and promote societal exchange, encouraging visitors to rethink their relationship with nature and one another.

One of the Reflecting Points, called Coal Museum, located at Friedrichsplatz, served as a place of encounter and reflection, featuring sitting niches within its structure. The form of the green landscape park of the nearby Karlswiese has symbolically been stamped out of a black block. Coal briquets and plants defined the building and were the main exhibition elements of this small museum. Its key message was clear: “We must place coal into the museum now; we cannot wait until 2038. Let us harness the regenerative power of soil and plants.” This vision was expressed through the image of bamboo breaking through the gaps of the coal cube, symbolizing nature’s capacity to replace fossil fuels with regenerative alternatives.

After its presentation at documenta fifteen, the Coal Museum was dismantled, stored, and later rebuilt in Referinghausen, where it now forms an integral part of the Open Mind Places installations.