Dear audience,
dear guests,

the Ruhr area has had to go through a tremendous process of transformation in the last few decades – and this history is far from over. The music festival of the “Open Systems” association has been accompanying this development since 1997 and has commented on the development steps in a musical and experimental way, if you will, and sometimes even anticipated them a little. Urban spaces were opened up and used, new forms of expression developed, the use of electronic and, later, increasingly digital, instrumentation defined new things.

An example of this is an event many years ago in the noble foyer of the abandoned headquarters of the formerly important mining company Harpen AG in Dortmund: The room is filled with sometimes towering electronic equipment, worldwide networking via a kind of early form of the Internet – all an expression of an artistic vision of future and opportunity.

Seen in this way, the organizers remain true to themselves this year too: At the BLAUES RAUSCHEN festival they once again build a bridge between urban culture, the legacy of the region and the city of Dortmund with the “Tresor West” in the basement of a former steelworks hall on Phoenix West large musical “Forward” button. I would like to thank “Open Systems” and all partners for their constant commitment, I wish all festival participants, all guests exciting experiences.

Jörg Stüdemann
City Director and Deputy for Finances, Real Estate and Culture of the City of Dortmund