Calendar

Venue:
MdbK - Museum der bildenden Künste
Katharinenstraße 10
04109 Leipzig
mdbk.de

>>> Curator tour and artist talk with Philipp Freytag and Katharina Schreiter (free of charge, no registration required)

In her most recent work, Katharina Schreiter (*1984 Dresden) takes the architecture of the MdbK as the starting point for photographic self-staging. The focus is on the physical experience of the interior space, the materials used in it and its considerable dimensions. Using collage, the artist combines her own black and white photographs of the rooms with performative self-portraits charged with brightly coloured props.

Three of the five motifs have been on display as large-format banners on the façade of the MdbK since spring 2025. There, they fulfil the function of the eponymous membrane - a delicate, thin skin that simultaneously serves as a separating and connecting layer between the interior and exterior spaces. Two further photographs enter into a dialogue with the MdbK's permanent exhibition.

Katharina Schreiter completed her studies at the Academy of Visual Arts in Tina Bara's Photography and Moving Image class in 2022. The artist's book Meta K., based on her diploma thesis of the same name, was published in 2021. In 2024 she was included in the group exhibition Win/Win. The Acquisitions of the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony at Museum Gunzenhauser (Chemnitz). Katharina Schreiter is currently completing her master student work with Joachim Blank. With the group of works entitled Membran, she combines the two-dimensional medium of photography with aspects of spatiality.

On the occasion of the project, a signed and numbered edition with all five motifs of the series Membran in the format 40 x 30 cm will be published in a limited edition of six copies (+ 1 artist proof) in a handmade cassette. The edition is available for 950€ at MdbK.

Participating artists:
Chieh-Jen Chen (陳界仁 ), Chieh-Sheng Keng (耿傑生), Juergen Staack, Jung Hsu (徐容) and Natalia Rivera, Lee Wan (이완), Mario Pfeifer, Sven Bergelt, Sojung Jun (전소정) and Yun-Ting Hung (洪韵婷)
Curated by: Ya-Wen Fu (傅雅雯), Yan-Huei Chen (陳妍卉), Minji Kang (강민지)

Period (opening hours):
daily 13:00-19:00

Venue:
Kunstquartier Bethanien
Mariannenplatz 2
10997 Berlin
kunstquartier-bethanien.de/

Opening: Sat. 23 August 2025 at 6 pm with a performance by Constantin Hartenstein, Wu-Kang Chen (陳武康) and Yi-Chi Lee (李奕騏)

The international event series "Shifting Terrains - Beyond Black and White" examines the increasing social polarisation worldwide and its interaction with technologies, bodies and spaces. In an exhibition as well as at a live concert and two film evenings, the artists and a team of curators will present their observations on changes in the social fabric and the relationship between the individual and the community at Kunstquartier Bethanien Berlin. With video and sound works, films and installations, the international team will embark on a search for opportunities for dialogue and social transformation. Digital technologies reinforce existing polarisations. At the same time, however, they also offer new opportunities for exchange and networking and help to create counter-publics and give marginalised perspectives a voice. After technologies, the body as a medium and symbol is the second focus of the series of events, as it is often at the centre of polarised debates due to its political, social and cultural significance. The third focus of the exhibition, spaces, examines how polarisation and digital media create social and physical spaces of exclusion in which people can no longer move freely.
The group exhibition "Shifting Terrains" features video works and installations by international artists, such as the video installation "Again - Noch einmal" by Mario Pfeiffer, in which he explores racism, lynch law and civil courage with the help of interviews and staged re-enactments. Or the video "Worn Away" by Taiwanese artist Chieh-Jen Chen, which shows people in a state of imprisonment who, in the course of the transformation of the world of work through digitalisation, are to be used by the state.
become useless bodies for the state in the wake of digitalisation.
During the exhibition opening, Constantin Hartenstein, Wu-Kang Chen and Yi-Chi Lee will be showing their performance "Hold", in which they explore the body as terrain, stable and unstable, supporting and being supported.
Under the title "Sonic Terrains", sound installations, generative audio-visuals and real-time calculations are combined in one evening to create live concerts in which a multi-layered terrain of perception and narrative is created through rituals of cultural translation. The selected films, which will be shown on the two film evenings under the title "Pas de deux, trois, quatre...", superficially tell of dual polarisation. On closer inspection, however, they reveal their actual narrative in the nuances in between and thus form the thematic framework for the series of events.

Further informationen & programme

Participating artists:
Omid Arabbay, Anastasiia Batishcheva, Bjørg Elttør, Jonas Fischer, Hannah Francke, Tatjana Hub, Krina Königsmann, Maximilian Koppernock, Ann-Sophie Krüger, Zoe Popp, Igor Vrdoljak, Mimi Shudi Yan
Supervised by Prof Armin Linke, Prof Heidi Specker, Prof Tobias Zielony and Prof Thomas Weski

Venue:
Schloss Neuhardenberg
Schinkelplatz
15320 Neuhardenberg

Partner:
A project by the Foundation for Photography and Media Art with the Michael Schmidt Archive and the Joachim Herz Foundation in collaboration with the Schloss Neuhardenberg Foundation. Supported by the Sparkassen-Kulturfonds

Opening: Sat, 30 August, 3 p.m., Orangery 
Admission free
Registration required

Welcome: Dr. Heike Kramer, Generalbevollmächtigte der Stiftung Schloss Neuhardenberg
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. Sabine Kunst, Vorstandsvorsitzende der Joachim Herz Stiftung 

Speaker: Omid Arabbay
Anastasiia Batishcheva
Tatjana Hub
Prof. Thomas Weski

With a performance by Zoe Popp and a reading by Bjørg Elttør

>>> Programme

Climate change is one of the most pressing and existential crises of our time and is no longer a dystopian vision of the future, but a phenomenon of the present. It is not only the temperatures that are changing - the political and social climate is also changing noticeably, in Neuhardenberg and the surrounding communities, in Germany and internationally.

Can art, which often recognises changes seismographically, make change visible? In the summer of 2024, students from the Hamburg University of Fine Arts, the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig and the Academy of Fine Arts Munich came together in Neuhardenberg to explore the possibilities of art in times of climate change in a summer photography workshop.

Can forests be archived before they are cut down? What does the nature of the soil have to do with climate change? How do we deal with invasive species? What is alien to us? What is familiar? The students have spent a year examining these and other questions. In a special exhibition, they attempt to find answers using artistic means.

More information...

Participating artists:
Dayoung Jung, Yunseon Jeong, Oyu Ocean, Brigita Kasperaitė, Len Bay, Hye Pak, Hyungyung Jang, Tràmi Nguyễn, Soyoung Yang, Julia Frank, Jakob Höfig
Poster Designer: Seokhyeon Lee
Documentation: Maha Kim
DJ: Simón Jaramillo Vallejo

Period (opening hours):
Fri.+Sat. 11:00-18:00, Sun. 11:00-17:00

Venue:
UNTERGESCHOSS 14
Spinnereistraße 7
04179 Leipzig

Partner:
Supported by the Studentenwerk Leipzig, the City of Leipzig and the HGB-Freundeskreis

Performance: Thu. 04.09.2025, 20:00

As part of the planned project exhibition “Unframed/Reframed,” the show addresses themes such as identity, exclusion, and the boundaries between the mainstream and the non-mainstream. Through a variety of media such as installation, video, photography, and digital imaging technologies, cultural contexts are explored from different perspectives. Today’s technologies are shaped by invisible norms, prejudices, and cultural assumptions. The participating artists critically examine these structural forces of culture and technology from their individual perspectives and transform them into artistic forms of expression.

The exhibition brings together various forms of expression such as mixed media, video, photo installation, object and spatial installation, sculpture, and performance, creating a multi-layered yet harmonious overall effect.

“Unframed/Reframed” does not limit itself to pointing out problems, but aims to pose new questions to the audience and jointly open up possibilities for reflection, imagination, and practical action.

Participating artists:
Nathalie Valeska Schüler, Karl-Heinz Adler, Sibylle Bergemann, Kurt Dornis, Markus Draper, Seiichi Furuya, Peter Herrmann, Sebastian Jung, Gisela Kurkhaus-Müller, Harald Metzkes, Sabine Moritz, Henrike Naumann, Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani, Manfred Pernice, Uwe Pfeifer, Sonya Schönberger, Wenke Seemann, Robert Seidel, Christian Thoelke, Stephen Willats, Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt among others

Period (opening hours):
Wed-Mon 10-19 h

Venue:
DAS MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam
Max-Planck-Straße 17
14473 Potsdam

In autumn 2025, DAS MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam is showing the exhibition Wohnkomplex. Art and Life in Prefabricated Housing. In this group exhibition, guest curator Kito Nedo explores the question of how East German prefabricated housing estates are negotiated in art.

Wohnkomplex is showing around 50 works by artists:Karl-Heinz Adler, Sibylle Bergemann, Kurt Dornis, Markus Draper, Seiichi Furuya, Peter Herrmann, Sebastian Jung, Gisela Kurkhaus-Müller, Harald Metzkes, Sabine Moritz, Henrike Naumann, Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani, Manfred Pernice, Uwe Pfeifer, Sonya Schönberger, Nathalie Valeska Schüler, Wenke Seemann, Robert Seidel, Christian Thoelke, Stephen Willats, Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt and others.

The exhibition presents installations, paintings, drawings, photographs and films created since the 1970s. In the exhibition, Kito Nedo brings together works that view and categorise prefabricated housing differently - as a place to live, as a symbol of social utopias and as a projection screen for social change. The focus is not only on prefabricated housing as an architectural legacy, but also as a cultural resonance space that raises questions about belonging, community and memory. The exhibition dovetails artistic works with socio-political issues and reflects on how urban spaces affect lifestyles and social structures.

Wohnkomplex opens up new perspectives on a building and living model that continues to have an impact today. Originally, prefabricated housing was the centrepiece of GDR social policy, a place of socialisation and a symbol of real socialist progress - until 1990. After the end of the GDR, it became the scene of painful transformations and a symbol of social decline and racist violence. As modern ruins, the buildings awaited demolition, were renovated or remodelled. The prefabricated blocks never became a monument, but remained a living presence. It is a place of remembrance of the GDR where living continues.

Period (opening hours):
Tue.-Sun., 14:00-18:00

Venue:
Techne Sphere Leipzig (Niemeyerstraße 2-5, 04179 Leipzig), Werkschauhalle 12 Spinnerei (Spinnereistraße 7, 04179 Leipzig)

Farewell ceremony for master students, opening & award ceremony for the G2 Meisterschüler*innen Prize: 
Friday, 26 September 2025, 6 p.m., Techne Sphere Leipzig
>>> party from 8 p.m.

At the end of the summer semester, the HGB will present the final projects of Meisterschüler*innen from all disciplines from the winter and summer semesters of 2024/25. These projects are the result of a two-year postgraduate programme at the HGB, which deepens and expands artistic-practical and artistic-scientific skills. 
The approximately 20 artistic positions will be presented to the public as loosely connected individual exhibitions at Techne Sphere Leipzig and in the Werkschauhalle at the Leipzig Spinnerei. Everyone is cordially invited to the opening at Techne Sphere on Friday evening, 26 September 2025 (free admission)!

This year marks the ninth time that a graduate has been honoured with the G2 Kunsthalle 's Meisterschüler*innen Prize. The prize is endowed with €10,000 and a free workspace for 12 months.

Period (opening hours):
performative activation: Fri. 17.10. & Fri. 24.10. 15:00-18:00, open: Wed.-Fri. 14:00-18:00, Sat. & Sun. 14:00-17:00

Venue:
HGB gallery
Wächterstraße 11
04107 Leipzig
www.hgb-leipzig.de/galerie
instagram.com/hgbgallery

Partner:
A cooperation of the HGB Gallery, the Class for Performative Arts of the HGB and the 12th Festival Politics in Independent Theatre

The "Graniczanka", the border dwellers, live in front of, behind and between the politically defined borders. Their everyday lives unfold between two countries and, in the border triangle between Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic, even three. They know the world of currency differences, different languages and radio ranges. Although they share a common sky, they have different memories of a common history. They can choose where they buy the freshest vegetables, which dentist or manicurist they go to or how their child benefit flows faster.

The "Graniczanka" installation invites you to participate in the knowledge of the border residents. It raises questions such as: In what way does everyday practice undermine political reality? Where does the political appear in the everyday? Does the Polish West also need mobile counselling centres against right-wing extremism? What longings commute daily over bridges, through forests and past petrol stations?

Period (opening hours):
Wed.-Fri. 14:00-18:00

Venue:
HGB gallery
Wächterstraße 11
04107 Leipzig
www.hgb-leipzig.de/galerie
instagram.com/hgbgallery

The exhibition "Notes on Lightness" examines the concept of lightness beyond the usual clichés. It does not merely thematise it as something weightless, floating or as a fetish of happiness that seems to promise a break from the omnipresent burdens. Rather, she understands becoming light as a resistant movement against a present that is not recognised as a political space of possibility and action in the repetition of the same old thing. Lightness therefore comes into focus in times of upheaval, when stable structures and orders are eroding. Or when power regimes channel or break the desire for difference and change.

"Notes on Lightness" opens up a sketch-like space in which strategies of lightness are visualised as diverse "movement (inventions)" - comparable to a dancing body "that slips away from itself". On display are artistic works that utilise lightness as a transformative potential: These include improvised dance, the queering of body politics, the fabulous refusal to simply confirm world relations and the "relational modes" of micro-revolutionary moments of solidarity. A central concern here is to counter the paradoxical appropriation of lightness by power structures such as financial capitalism, the economisation of nature or the digitality paradigm with another form of movement (discovery).