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Panoramic view on the North Campus © Jürgen Huhn​/​TU Dortmund

Exhibition: Lonely mountain tops - Lost places in the Alps and their people

Oktober 8 – November 24 Location: Campus Stadt der TU Dortmund im Dortmunder U, Leonie-Reygers-Terrasse, 44137 Dortmund
Event type:
  • Ausstellung
  • tu | kultur
  • tu | kultur: Ausstellung
Exhibition about winter sports in the mountains, with pictures of snow-covered landscapes and ski equipment in the foreground. © Martina Hengesbach​/​TU Dortmund
Places of work, places of leisure, places of life become lost places: disused ski resorts, rusty lift masts, broken gondolas and crumbling mountain restaurants. The focus shifts to the people of the places affected by structural change in the Swiss mountains.

Places where people live, work or spend their leisure time can sometimes become “lost places” in the course of structural change, as can be seen, for example, from some industrial towns in the Ruhr region. Also among these disused places are regions that you would not expect at first glance – including the Alps and especially Switzerland with its abandoned ski resorts: Rusty masts, defective gondolas and dilapidated mountain restaurants still seem to be waiting for their visitors. Cableways slice through the forests, as do ski slopes that are no longer cleared.

Human stories make structural change tangible

Alongside impressive photographic portraits of these lost places, the exhibition spotlights the people affected by structural change in the Swiss mountains. In studies of ski resorts that are no longer operating, known as Lost Ski Area Projects (LSAP), human narratives are not always prominent. “Yet they make such experiences particularly tangible – and all too often form the link between the deserted or abandoned and the sense of loneliness,” says Professor Christoph Schuck.

Together with his team, he has built up a database of all ski resorts and individual valley lifts in Switzerland ever documented – over 40 percent have meanwhile disappeared. Apart from climate change, the reasons for this include a declining trend in winter sports and insufficient profitability. The seminar “Politics and Public Space: Loneliness and Structural Change”, in which students explored possible approaches for depicting loneliness, helped in the design of the exhibition, which also includes exhibits from the ALPS Swiss Alpine Museum.

Supporting Program

Thursday, 17 October Opening of the exhibition 6 p.m.
Sunday, 3 November Family Sunday: „Round Table Loneliness – Stadtgespräche“
Open conversation with political science teachers and students about scientific research on loneliness.		 12:30 pm - 1:30 p.m.
Sunday, 3 November Family Sunday: „Loneliness – Talking about a taboo topic“
Open conversation with political science teachers and students about scientific research on loneliness.		 2:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.

As a partner in the Dortmunder U, TU Dortmund University regularly provides insights into research and teaching on the City Campus. Exhibition presentations and the space as a forum for dialogue offer urban society the opportunity to get to know and discuss issues and findings from the scientific disciplines through various event formats.

Opening hours
Tue, Wed 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Thu, Fri 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Sat, Sun 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Free admission

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