At the end of the Ruhrtriennale under the artistic directorship of Barbara Frey, the official handover of the festival library to the Bochum public library will take place on Monday, 25 September at 4 pm. More than 100 books – brought to the Ruhr region as gifts by a large number of the invited international artists – will be handed over on the upper floor of the central library in the Education and Administration Center, Gustav-Heinemann-Platz 2-6. On the programme: greetings from Barbara Frey, Judith Gerstenberg, head dramaturge of the Ruhrtriennale, and library director Meheddiz Gürle, followed by a discussion. Participation in the event is free of charge.

As part of the past three festival editions, the Ruhrtriennale had asked artists to bring books that give us an insight into their reading in challenging times of pandemic, war and climate catastrophe. For a deposit, the books could be borrowed during the festival in the Pappelwaldkantine in front of the Bochum Jahrhunderthalle. As diverse as the artistic manuscripts of the festival were, as diverse is the selection of literature: in addition to photo as well as poetry volumes and philosophical texts, there are mainly novels and children's and youth literature from all over the world among them. The oldest book was published around 1800 and the smallest book format is just a few centimeters long. The publications are in German, English, Spanish, Polish and Mandarin.

With the handover, the festival library can now be rediscovered year-round at the Bochum Central Library at the end of the Ruhrtriennale on 23 September.

The collection includes books from the private collections of artists and collectives such as Georges Aperghis, Jean-Christophe Bailly, Lukas Bärfuss, Bibiana Beglau, Billy Cobham, Dennis Russell Davies, Virginie Déjos, Anna Drexler, Peter Eisold, Camille Emaille, Adèle Haenel, Florian Helgath, Florentina Holzinger, Nina Hoss, Mette Ingvartsen, Eva Koťátková, Marco Layera, loekenfranke, Constanza Macras, Marilyn Mazur, Bettina Meyer, Mohammad Reza Mortazavi, Paul Van Nevel, Lucas Niggli, Etienne Nillesen, Amanda Piña, Philippe Quesne, Sylvie Rohrer, Eszter Salamon, Markus Scheumann, Alex Silva, Mats Staub, Simon Steen-Andersen, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Gisèle Vienne, Stefan Wartenberg and Martin Zehetgruber.