The restoration of the Emscher, a canalized river more eighty kilometers long in the northern Ruhr region, is currently one of the largest renaturation projects in the world. The heart of the project, Emscher Island, stretches out for thirty-four kilometers between the Emscher and the Rhine-Herne Canal. The island has been incorporated into the EMSCHERKUNST 2010 project, one of the events celebrating the European Capital of Culture. Forty internationally known artists, including Rita McBride, Lawrence Weiner, Mark Dion, Tobias Rehberger, and Tadashi Kawamata, have agreed to create works of art for the island based on their rigorous examinations of the region. Their works for public space—the spectrum ranges from “singing rocks” and an ornithology station to a traveling Punch and Judy show—will be on display at unusual sites between Castrop-Rauxel and Oberhausen, for instance, at canal locks, in the canal itself, or on the outer shell of a former digestion tower. After an introduction to the history of the region and contemporary issues, the book takes the reader on a journey across Emscher Island in words and pictures. www.emscherkunst.de Exhibition schedule: Emscher-Insel, May 29–September 5, 2010