For the Ruhrtriennale 2023, the film collective loekenfranke, consisting of the experienced documentary film duo Michael Loeken and Ulrike Franke, has created its very own visual world. For two decades, the duo has been telling stories of people in the midst of major transformation processes. Their style is characterised by a personal look at the supposedly trivial, often revealing deeper statements about the big picture.

For the Ruhrtriennale, they embarked on a documentary journey with bird watchers in the Ruhr area. Observing the birds awakens memories in people and makes them reflect on their own situation – according to Michael Loeken – but while people are observing the birds, they are actually searching for something else entirely.

The resulting images form the foundation for the entire festival communication. With an extensive series of images, the artistic work will also appear in the festival catalogue for the Ruhrtriennale 2023 in mid-June.