Originally, »Spirits of the Emscher Valley« was intended for the 2016 Emscherkunst exhibition as a kind of parkour linking three sculptures. The “spirits” consisted of the two works »Vogelfrau« (Bird woman) and »Totem mit Elster« (Totem with magpie) that were installed during the exhibition on the southern shore of the Phoenix Lake in Dortmund’s Hörde district, then later shifted to the Emscher-Weg (Emscher cycling path) on the other side of the lake. A third sculpture, »Beobachter (Oraculum)« (Viewer), was originally installed on the grounds of the Hansa coking plant in the Huckarde district of Dortmund but is now no longer preserved.
The works came about in a participatory process with people who have a personal relationship to the Huckarde and Hörde districts near Dortmund. In this way, the artists Lucy and Jorge Orta wanted to give expression to the spirit of the new Emscher Valley. The aluminium sculptures were developed from tales and collective memories recounted by the participants, and from their philosophical reflections. Many of the participants had actively witnessed the era of the steel industry in the Phoenix-West and Phoenix-Ost foundries that were gradually shut down prior to 2001, thereby marking the end of Dortmund’s heavy industry. The Phoenix-Ost plant was dismantled and exported to China. In its place, in 2011 the grounds of the former steelworks were transformed into the Phoenix Lake as a local recreational area and are now a premium residential district.