In the summer of 2021, at the heart of the climate justice movement in Lützerath, we created the painting DAS GROSSE GELINGEN in the barn of the village’s last remaining resident, Eckardt Heukamp. The work was completed within 30 days.
At the centre of the painting is the enormous bucket-wheel of an excavator. Within a vast open-cast mining canyon, it tears open the corner of a house that appears to hover above the abyss. Inside, a child’s room is revealed. On the floor, among other elements, a miniature landscape of Lützerath can be seen. On the wall hangs a mural depicting a scene from The Jungle Book—Mowgli and the elephant—referencing an actual event during the demolition of a house in a village near the Hambach open-cast mine.
The floor of the room breaks apart, and everything is pulled into the canyon: plants, animals, and all forms of life.
The painting is, among other things, a visual manifestation of the unspeakable: a depiction of the assault by RWE on the younger generation and of the company’s disregard for the repeated warnings of science regarding the urgent necessity of achieving the 1.5°C target established at the 2015 Paris Climate Conference.
The title DAS GROSSE GELINGEN? contains a deliberate alteration: instead of the letter ß in the German word großes, the punctuation mark ? is used. This question mark points simultaneously toward the possibility of a truly great success and the possibility of a profound failure in achieving the 1.5°C climate target.
In 2026, only five years later, the young people of Fridays for Future, who had once taken to the streets worldwide carrying cardboard signs such as “There is no Planet B”, are confronted with new scientific realities. They face the devastating recognition that the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C—proclaimed only a few years earlier—is no longer considered achievable, and that the planet may face warming of at least 3°C within the coming decades, with potentially catastrophic consequences for life on Earth.
From this reality, we initiated the long-term performance project ZUKUNFTSSPAZIERGANG (WALKING INTO THE FUTURE). Beginning in 2021, we set out with the painting, carrying it together with members of Fridays for Future and many other participants to various locations throughout Germany, travelling mostly on foot in several stages.
Wherever we brought the painting, we used it as a catalyst for dialogue—raising awareness of these urgent issues and engaging directly with people.
The most spectacular stage was the approximately 30-day journey with the painting from the two Beuys Oaks in front of the Fridericianum during documenta fifteen, across the Hochsauerland region, covering 256 kilometres largely on foot, until reaching Lützerath.
A remarkable moment occurred when the painting was spontaneously presented at the stand of the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe during an art fair, initiated by Professor Peter Weibel, then director of the institution.
Most recently, in 2025, the work was presented at the art association Culture Without Borders in Kaarst. Previous stations included the Eldena Monastery Ruins in Greifswald, as well as the international symposium Extractivism + Data Mining at the Muthesius Kunsthochschule Kiel, invited by Professor Andreas Greiner and Professor Dr. Christiane Kruse.
Helge & Saxana
ZUKUNFTSSPAZIERGANG
