Power the Pott! - REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT

Power the Pott! – Senior Citizen Energy Pioneers supply electricity with fitness equipment
REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT


Installation of four spinning bikes, generators, inverters and a digital electricity meter.

The mobile gym Power The Pott! is a model project that produces and supplies electricity via spinning bikes. The installation visualizes potentials in three areas relevant to the future: health, demography, and renewable energy.

The Ruhr area’s overarching demographic trend is of a large increase in elderly residents. Evidently, the area is able to give nationwide impulses for new concepts to handle the demographic developments in Germany. The installation emphasizes the importance of the elderly as local stakeholders. As producers of renewable energy they also stay fit in their evening of their lives.
Energy production via spinning bikes works on a small scale, micro level and pits a decentralized and participatory model against centralized and monopolized structures.

On September 28, 2013 the gym was used as part of a special promotional day for the Gelsensport association and was operated by sportive seniors. Gelsensport is the umbrella organization of the 267 sport clubs in the city of Gelsenkirchen and works as a service partner for communal representatives and citizens. The following statement of the organizers of the special promotion day stressed the same:

“The demographic change means a massively growing population of the elderly. This trend has effects on sports organizations, especially the membership structures of the sports clubs. The target group of the elderly and the field of ‘sports with the aging’ is becoming a more and more important topic for sports clubs, but it is also a chance to develop new forms and formats to integrate the group of people over 50 years in the field of organized sport.”

We are grateful to Thomas Kinner (Gelsensport) for his organizational cooperation. The on-site production was made possible with great commitment by Aurel Thurn. We thank for the friendly, communicative and mediating support of the installation.

In 2014 the installation Power The Pott! received a permanent place in the Ruhr area at the Bochum University of Applied Sciences.



REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT (RG) stands for an art practice within a social dialogue. RG works with partners from different backgrounds and presents a platform for interdisciplinary activity. The way of working is based on the potential that results from the intertwining of different social spheres. REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT understands contemporary art to be a catalyst for social and political processes.

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