BONN. A number of environmental initiatives are currently taking place in Bonn to support the United Nations 17 Social Development Goals (SDGs) for the city. The Bonn SDG Days are organised by the Office for International Affairs and Global Sustainability. Initiatives, companies and groups in Bonn will present their commitment to the SDGs at information stands on Friday afternoons (25 September and 1 October) and all day on Saturday 25 September. The city centre shops are getting involved and footprints on the ground will provide people with the opportunity to test their own environmental footprint. A colourful canopy of umbrellas will be hanging over Friedrichstrasse until 4 October, symbolising the 17 goals for making Bonn a socially, economically and ecologically sustainable city.

Bonn mayor Katja Dörner opened the campaign on Saturday at the Münsterplatz, saying, “the SDGs have become the linchpin of the international sustainability discussion. As a German UN city and centre for sustainable development, here in Bonn we see it as our particular duty to implement them. We have already set a number of things in motion, such as our sustainability strategy and the decision to make our city climate-neutral by 2035.”

For the first time this year, a large shipping container has been converted into an information and event space on the Münsterplatz. As well as providing information to the public, the 17 Goals Space is being used to offer a programme of events, including presentations from local groups such as the International Women’s Centre and the Bonn Disabled Community, workshops for students, discussions, and evening films on local and global topics including two with English subtitles, which are particularly aimed at the city’s international community.

On Saturday at the Beethoven statue things suddenly got musical. The Hofgarten Orchester and Collegium Musicum Bonn appeared as an orchestral flash mob and performed for seventeen minutes, accompanied by the choir of the Collegium Musicum Bonn and the Big Band from the University of Bonn.

(Original text: Niklas Schröder)

KÖNIGSWINTER/REGION. Preliminary work for the renovation of the B42 tunnel is expected to be completed on Sunday, 26 September. This weekend however, the road is already closed in the direction of Cologne until Sunday, 19 September at 6 pm. The recommended diversion is signposted and leads from the Königswinter junction via Ferdinand Mülhens-Straße, Hauptstraße (L 193) and Grünen Weg back to the B42. An absolute no-stopping zone has been set up at various points along the main road.

At almost the same time, the A3 is also closed this weekend between the Bonn/Siegburg junction and the Lohmar junction towards Oberhausen until 5 am on Monday 20 September. Heavy traffic and congestion are expected on the A3 as well as the nearby A560 and A59 and motorists are advised to avoid this area as much as possible. Long-distance traffic coming from Würzburg on the A3 should take the A 45 from the Seligenstadt junction (A 3/A 45) to the Olpe-Süd junction and then take the A4 towards Cologne. The A3 will also be closed here for the next two weekends.

(Original text: Mario Quart)

BONN. On the lawn at the Hofgarten, 32-year-old artist Simon Theis is using his installation ‘The Abandoned Patient’ to draw attention to problems in the health system. With a nursing bed and toilet in his container, the Alanus student will immerse himself for two and a half days in the role of a hospitalised person in need of care. Two real care workers are supporting him by providing meals and helping with personal hygiene. The artist explains that he will also use the toilet in the container. “The actions are visible as real procedures, but they are carried out discreetly,” he says.

“The performance is about the interplay between staging and self-experimentation,” Theis explains. Before studying at Alanus University in Alfter, he worked as a registered nurse in the emergency room at a hospital. The performance is based on his experiences and is intended to expose “the inadequacies” in the health system. “The project is intended to make the seemingly invisible visible and in doing so, through perception, to promote an awareness of something with which many people have developed a disaffected relationship,” Theis explains.

Passers-by, however, are not sure what to make of Theis’ performance. On Friday evening, a young man at first thought it was a vaccination container or a test centre. Only at second glance did he realise it was an initiative.

The artist has been studying philosophy, art and society since 2018. The costs for his project amount to several thousand euros. Theis is paying half of the expenses out of his own pocket and is receiving the other half from the Alanus Sponsors' Association and from crowdfunding. Theis plans to live in the container until 5 pm on Sunday, when a taxi will then take him home.

(Original text: Niklas Schröder)

BAD GODESBERG. From Monday, 20 September, to Friday, 31 December, Ubierstraße between Am Arndtplatz and Rheinallee will be partially closed and made into a one-way street towards Bonn due to sewer works. The bus routes N10, 610 and 638 will be diverted.

From the bus stop Saarstraße, the N10 and 610 buses to Bad Godesberg will travel via Mittelstraße, Plittersdorfer Straße, Beethovenallee, Uhlandstraße, Rheinallee to the bus stop Kronprinzenstraße and then continue along the normal route. The 638 towards Stadtwald/Ev. Krankenhaus will be diverted from the stop Plittersdorf Mitte via Gotenstraße, Plittersdorfer Straße, Beethovenallee, Uhlandstraße, Rheinallee up to the stop Kronprinzenstraße, where it will continue along the usual route. The buses will not halt at some stops due to the works.

(Original text: scld)

(Translations: Caroline Kusch)