Bureau LADA was invited to develop the scenography for the three Gelsenkirchen venues curated by Gürsoy Doğtaş. Scenographers Ema Dabrović, Lada Hršak and Katarina Pedišić created site-specific spatial designs that shape the visitor experience, complementing Doğtaş’ curatorial vision for Manifesta 16 Ruhr. His venues St. Bonifatius – Ferdane Satır Tea Garden, Thomaskirche – Hava Güleç Living Room, and St. Anna – Hatay Engin Music Hall explore the histories and legacies of labour migration alongside intersectional queer studies.

Working closely with the architecture and histories of each church, Bureau LADA’s scenographic interventions provide a thoughtful framework for the artworks and stories presented within these spaces. At Thomaskirche – Hava Güleç Living Room, for example, display structures have been designed to fit between the existing church pews. These bring together textile works made by women who came to Germany as labour migrants from the late 1950s onwards.

About LADA: Landscape, Architecture, Design, and Action
The cross-disciplinary studio founded in 2012 by architect and urbanist Lada Hršak embraces an interdisciplinary practice, working across landscape, architecture, design and action.

Bureau LADA sees these disciplines as defining the potential of architecture as a spatial practice. They test the social and environmental capacity of the discipline through built interventions, as well as performative actions and publications. Their approach relates actions of building with acts of restoring and growing, inviting people to reconnect with their own 'sense of agency’ within a particular territory.

This reflects Manifesta 16 Ruhr's wider commitment to creating spaces that foster encounter, participation and dialogue within neighbourhood churches and their surrounding communities.