Mediaguides Without Borders

Three cultural hotspots in the European cultural landscape, all located far from major metropolitan centres: the Völklingen Ironworks UNESCO World Heritage Site is almost Germany’s westernmost point, the Louvre-Lens is located in the very north of France, and the Hilti Art Foundation is situated in the small Principality of Liechtenstein.

And yet all three institutions have succeeded in positioning themselves among the leading international cultural organisations.

Klaus Kowatsch, Artistic Director at tonwelt – guiding solutions in Berlin, in conversation with Ralf Beil, Director of the Völklingen Ironworks UNESCO World Heritage Site in Völklingen, Juliette Barthelemy, Head of Interpretation at Louvre-Lens in Lens, and Karin Schick, Director of the Hilti Art Foundation in Vaduz.

The three institutions actively cultivate both local and international relationships and align their interpretation strategies accordingly. Through this commitment, they have achieved remarkable visibility and reach despite their unusual geographical locations.

Klaus Kowatsch (KK): In my collaboration with Louvre-Lens, the Hilti Art Foundation and the Völklingen Ironworks over recent years, I have repeatedly been fascinated by their strong commitment to interpretation, as well as by their openness towards the digital and media possibilities that tonwelt provides in this field.

All three institutions have a distinctive geographical position. For their work, it is therefore essential to understand how visitor flows develop and how best to respond to them.

Ralf Beil (RB): We specifically address visitors from France, Belgium and Luxembourg, and even from the Netherlands.

We produce not only brochures in German, English, French and Dutch, but of course also digital information in these languages.

We advertise in front of major museums in Metz and Luxembourg, as well as at Paris Gare de l’Est, using posters and both traditional and digital advertising campaigns.

Twenty-five percent of our visitors come from Europe and overseas.

Juliette Barthelemy (JB): Louvre-Lens is an important tourist attraction halfway between Paris and Brussels.

In 2012, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais coalfield was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List, which significantly contributed to raising awareness of the region and increasing its appeal. Our museum opened in the same year.

Since then, it has been committed to strong local engagement and has played a significant role in the region’s transformation.

This approach is also reflected in our interpretation strategy, which focuses on close collaboration with visitors and participation for everyone.

Seventy percent of our museum visitors come from the region, with 25 percent coming from the immediate surrounding area.

International visitors account for around 15 percent, with the majority coming from Belgium.

Our aim is to continue expanding our audience dynamically, with openness towards neighbouring countries playing a central role.

For each exhibition, we therefore establish partnerships with tourism and cultural organisations on both sides of the border, allowing us to reach visitors who are geographically further away.

Karin Schick (KS): Our geographical position is also quite unique: our private institution, which houses an important art collection, is located between three German-speaking neighbouring countries and at the same time in the heart of Europe.

Liechtenstein is small, but it has an international population and serves as a hub for many travellers heading south.

For this target audience – local visitors, audiences from the DACH region and international guests – we produce all analogue and digital exhibition texts in German and English, as well as our innovative mediaguide, which we established last year together with tonwelt.

Ralf Beil (RB): Multilingualism is essential for all our interpretation formats. Our mediaguides always operate in three languages – German, English and French.

Juliette Barthelemy (JB): Our multilingual welcome for international visitors is specifically tailored to the expectations of guests from Belgium and the Netherlands.

All gallery texts are available in French, Dutch and English. The audioguides are also offered in these three languages, and guided tours can additionally be booked in German.

Klaus Kowatsch (KK): Cross-border collaboration with various partner institutions is probably also an important factor in shaping the content and contributing to the success of these projects.

Karin Schick (KS): Absolutely.

We mainly collaborate with partners in Liechtenstein, Germany and Switzerland – for example with the International School Rheintal in neighbouring Buchs (CH), whose students come from a wide range of countries and are taught in English.

Another contribution was created together with the Music Academy in Liechtenstein and a Chinese-American violinist based in Berlin: he selected music to accompany works from our art collection and interprets these pieces within the mediaguide.

Ralf Beil (RB): The Völklingen Ironworks UNESCO World Heritage Site actively cooperates with cultural institutions in France, Luxembourg and Belgium – together, we realise festivals, performances, dance events and music programmes.

The Saar-Lor-Lux region has very close cultural ties. This network is also reflected in our newsletter, where we specifically highlight the programmes offered by the Centre Pompidou Metz and Mudam Luxembourg.

Next year, we aim to establish a Triangle d’Art together with these two institutions – all three organisations have exceptional architecture and are deeply engaged in the field of contemporary art.

Juliette Barthelemy (JB): The Louvre-Lens benefits greatly in practice from its location close to the Belgian border, which creates lively exchange and numerous partnerships.

One example is our collaboration with acting students from Cours Florent in Brussels: alongside jointly developing special signage for selected works in the new permanent exhibition Galerie du temps, artistic performances were created and presented in front of these works during a dedicated student weekend.

These performances were then transformed into audio drama scenes, recorded and integrated into the mediaguide.

Klaus Kowatsch (KK): What makes these different mediaguides particularly special is that they cross boundaries in two ways: between countries and between artistic disciplines.

I personally found it extremely rewarding to work with young performers on theatre texts and to explore a new, fresh and unexpected perspective on the exhibited artworks together with them.

Karin Schick (KS): Exactly. At the Hilti Art Foundation, we particularly enjoy using video material as an additional layer of interpretation.

This includes interviews with contemporary witnesses and museum colleagues, interpretations by students, as well as theatre productions, for example.

But we also transcend boundaries of time: the current exhibition In Touch presents a visual dialogue between Paul Klee and Sean Scully spanning more than a century.

For the mediaguide, we collaborated with the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern. Together with the tonwelt team around Klaus Kowatsch (direction) and Daniel Franz (camera), we also filmed at various locations in New York and recorded an extensive interview with Sean Scully in his studio.

Juliette Barthelemy (JB): Certain exhibitions have also brought an international perspective beyond national borders.

For Poland 1840–1918. The Soul of a Nation Painted, all audio commentary was also produced in Polish.

Our museum is located in an area with a strong history of Polish immigration during the last century, and the connection with Poland remains very close.

There are also concrete plans to expand the mediaguide with additional languages: German, as Germany is another neighbouring country, as well as languages targeting countries with significant tourism potential.

Japanese and Chinese audio tours are planned.

Klaus Kowatsch (KK): Today, interpretation is much more than a service or an additional offering.

It is a strategic, artistic and social instrument – effective far beyond metropolitan centres and capable of achieving international recognition at the highest level.

Openness to collaboration, multiple voices and new media formats is particularly important.

Mediaguides can become spaces of resonance: they connect places with their regions, artworks with voices from different disciplines, and visitors with their own experiences.

Borders become less important when content inspires curiosity, opens up new perspectives and enables dialogue.

This is precisely where the great potential of contemporary interpretation lies, especially at locations with exceptional geographical positions.

This text was originally published in German. The English translation provided here was generated using AI.