This event is in German only, please refer to the German section of this site for registration information.

The streets of Dortmund’s Unionviertel become the site of a participatory encounter as seven inhabitants of Dortmund with a special relationship to money, debt and guilt take participants to places which have played an important role in their personal history.

The main protagonists of this encounter are a wealthy person who has never had to work, someone who immigrated to Germany hoping for a better life, a factory worker, an adolescent who is not legally competent to start a business, someone who manages other people’s money, someone who has gone from rich to being hopelessly indebted, and a priest who gives all his income to his order. The common point between them is that they carry a monetary or moral debt to society and have the obligation to contribute profitably to society.

I promise, I am the Future is a guided tour through the streets of Dortmund that provides an occasion to reflect on one’s own position in society, the value of work and money, the role of solidarity in society and our collective promise as debtors – a promise we never made but are willing to keep.


Jens Heitjohann is a freelance artists working in the realm between performance, conceptual art and media-based installations. His performance series In Begleitung, staged in Dortmund’s public spaces as part of the HMKV’s exhibition Sounds Like Silence in 2012, generated a series of exciting encounters between inhabitants and exhibition goers.

Limited number of participants, registrations by telephone only
0231-4763668 (HMKV at the Dortmunder U).


Organized by Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV) and Urbane Künste Ruhr. In framework of the exhibition Requiem for a Bank and the NEW INDUSTRIES FESTIVAL.

Concept and direction: Jens Heitjohann
Dramaturgy: Aline Benecke, Christina Pfrötschner
Curator: Fabian Saavedra-Lara
Advisor: Johanna-Yasirra Kluhs