Mirosław Bałka’s Mining Madonna at Manifesta 16 in Bochum

For Manifesta 16, Polish artist Mirosław Bałka presents works in two deconsecrated churches in Bochum, Germany: Christ-König-Kirche and Gethsemane-Kirche. In the Gethsemane-Kirche, yellow neon signs spell out the word HEIMAT (homeland) in languages of former guest workers in the region. The fragile neon tubes evoke canaries once used by miners to detect toxic gas. Outside Christ-König-Kirche, Bałka installed a three-meter-tall sculpture titled 'Schwarze Madonna' (Black Madonna), a massive, archaic female figure filled with coal, with empty eye sockets and a missing child from her lap. The work references grieving working-class mothers by Käthe Kollwitz and Brecht's Mother Courage. Bałka, born in 1958, gained international recognition in 2009 with 'How It Is' at Tate Modern's Turbine Hall, a black, container-like structure that evoked Holocaust associations. His studio is located in Otwock, Poland, near Treblinka. The artist describes his Bochum works as gestures connected to disappearance, emptiness, and questions about homeland.