Wheels – Tribute to Drivers
Audiovisual art as a sign of appreciation for truck drivers
Premiere of the video sound installation at the light art festival GOLDSTÜCKE
7 a.m., A46 interchange Düsseldorf-Süd. Barely awake, a giant truck suddenly pulls in front of me into the middle lane. I swerve to the passing lane. Just a fleeting glance through the mirrored window of the driver’s door. He hasn’t seen me—he’s in another world, his own.
The world of truckers—completely unfamiliar to most of us. Something between fascination and bleakness, between the wide open road and dreary highway rest stops. What must it feel like, sitting up there behind the wheel? The heroes of the road awaken in us a mix of humble respect and a faint, guilty relief that we get to turn off the engine and go home, while they face another lonely night in the cab. And how often do we simply find ourselves annoyed by those massive rigs blocking our way.
We wanted to get closer to that world—to capture a piece of it and make it tangible. To create an artwork and give something back to the truckers. To show our appreciation that they do this job for us. That’s how WHEELS – Tribute to Drivers came to life.
Images used on this page: © Martin Schmüdderich, Area Composer
As part of the GOLDSTÜCKE light art festival, “WHEELS” was projected onto a parked truck from the 2nd to the 5th of October 2025; the sound came from mobile speakers that were set up invisibly. This created the effect of the vehicle itself producing the images and sounds.
The artwork
Slowly merging images and an associative sound composition describe the world of truckers: a life between time pressure, traffic jams, and crowded resting areas — and the feeling of freedom on their routes through Europe.
The images were taken on highway trips from a car and a truck, at rest stops, from bridges, and in Uwe Traub’s driver’s cab. Blending these motion-blurred photographs creates an extremely slow-moving image. The sound is a composition of tones, noises, voices, and music, incorporating original sound recordings made during the photo shoots.
We would like to thank:
- Spedition Engemann u. Co., Hilden
- Truck driver Uwe Traub
- Singer Geli Gold
- Speaker Stefan Peikert, Florin Pinciu
Project scope
- Artistic conception
- Performance conception
- Image and sound recordings
- Composition
- Technical planning
- Public relations
- Cooperation with local actors
- Documentation
Curator
Technical director
Organiser
Technic
Drum Albastru – Blue road
Ron Gaube composed a song for »WHEELS« that is integrated into his sound composition. The lyrics are about the loneliness of drivers on their long journeys far from home. Since the majority of truck drivers on German roads come from Romania, we translated the lyrics into Romanian. “Drum Albastru” was sung by the singer Geli Gold. The song can be heard at the end of the video sound installation – like a random radio fragment, introduced by the jingle of Radio Bucharest. Here we present it in its pure version:
Our thanks also go to Stefan Peikert and Florin Pinciu, who lent their Polish and Romanian voices to the truck drivers.
WHEELS – whereever truckers are on their road
We are looking for cooperation partners to install »WHEELS« at additional locations and reach as many truck drivers as possible in their everyday lives. The installation is flexible and can be used, for example, at rest stops, highway churches, truck stops, or parking lots.
Do you have an exciting location or idea in mind? Then get in contact with us—we look forward to working with you to create something special.