Calendar

Participating artists:
Featuring works by Heidi Specker and Aenne Biermann Curator Franciska Zólyom Curatorial assistant Hanar Hupka Exhibition design BLESS Graphic design Müller & Wesse (Stephan Müller)

Period (opening hours):
Tue–Fri: 2 pm–7 pm, Sat–Sun and public holidays: 12 noon–6 pm

Venue:
gfzk - Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig
Karl–Tauchnitz–Str. 9-11
04107 Leipzig
gfzk.de

Heidi Specker’s exhibition is the latest instalment in her artistic exploration, spanning several years, of the life and work of the Jewish photographer Aenne Biermann (1898–1933). Drawing on public and private collections, the memories of her descendants and historical research into the Biermann family’s story of flight, Heidi Specker traces a history shaped by the political upheavals of the 20th century.

Aenne Biermann was a prominent figure in Gera’s urban society – in the 1920s, a cosmopolitan city and a cultural centre of modernism. In just a few years, the self-taught photographer became a leading exponent of avant-garde photography. She wore her hair short, in a ‘men’s cut’, and had her studio designed by one of the most sought-after architects of her time. Her photographs are characterised by the ‘New Vision’ – that is, the intense observation of the immediate surroundings and unusual perspectives on people and objects.
Heidi Specker explores the life and work of Aenne Biermann, establishing an artistic and personal connection with her. Loss plays a significant role in this. Aenne Biermann’s work came to an abrupt halt due to her early death from illness. Much of her photographic legacy was looted by the Nazis or is considered lost. In the course of her artistic research, Heidi Specker travelled to Gera, Trieste and Vienna and made contact with Aenne Biermann’s grandchildren. Through juxtapositions, she reimagines the photographer’s themes and compositions, appropriates them and translates them into the present day. Two video works recount key stages of her search for traces: in *Amnesia Gera*, Heidi Specker contrasts Gera’s once cosmopolitan city life with the marches of right-wing groups today. In *Vienna*, she explores the significance of material legacies for remembrance. Together with the design duo BLESS, she has developed a bespoke exhibition architecture and a limited edition inspired by the historical interior of Aenne Biermann’s ‘Damenzimmer’.

A German-language publication accompanying the exhibition features texts by Heidi Specker and Ronya Othmann, as well as contributions by Claudia Tittel, Daria Brasca, Anneliese Schallmeiner and Albena Zlatanova.

Heidi Specker has also designed the 2026 annual gift from the Friends of the HGB, which can be reserved immediately by emailing sroth@hgb-leipzig.de.

Venue:
Studio Michael Riedel
Niddastr. 84 (Hinterhaus)
60329 Frankfurt am Main

Hanns Bahra is to be awarded the MECkERT Art Prize for the first time this year. From 4 to 6 September 2026, Studio Michael Riedel will present his exhibition ‘Anhang im Süden’.

Hanns Bahra, a Leipzig-based artist and graduate of the Academy of Visual Arts, Leipzig (HGB), combines illustration, painting and experimental object art in his work to create distinctive compositions. His works navigate the tension between abstract visual worlds and narrative graphics, with layering, textures and creative chance playing a central role. Moving beyond the two-dimensional plane of paper, Bahra expands his art through installations and theatrical objects.

The MECkERT Art Prize will be awarded for the first time in 2026. Endowed by the art-collecting couple Matthias and Kristine Meckert from Frankfurt am Main, it is awarded annually to artists who, following their studies in Prof. Michael Riedel’s class at the HGB Leipzig, have developed an outstanding artistic practice. The prize money of 5,000 euros is intended to strengthen the independence of the visual arts during the formative phase following graduation. The public award ceremony takes place as part of the season opening of Frankfurt’s galleries. The prize is presented in the form of a coin minted by Michael Riedel.

Participating artists:
Joachim Blank, Sonya Egorova, Marie Charlotte Elsner, Naomi Frank, Li Huhn, Laila Kamil, Niklas Kleemann, Samuel Kok, Clemens Körner, Franziska Kühn, Snow Paik, Sophie Charlotte von Rintelen, Pascal Schiffers, Marie Seelen, Einav Zeichner, Siyan Zhang, Yana Zschiedrich, Kwon Woo-jae, Kim Seo-yeon, Kim Yoon-young, Viktoriia Ermolaeva, Lee Seo-hyeon

Period (opening hours):
Fri, Sat, Sun / closed Sept 25 & 26

Venue:
Ilsansuji, 2nd floor, 58 Gamjeoncheon-ro, Sasang-gu, Busan

In September 2026, the exhibition ‘Will You Be My Penpal?’ on the second floor of Ilsansuji – marking the start of an exchange project between Joachim Blank’s ‘Installation and Space’ class at the HGB Leipzig and the Department of Contemporary Art at Dong-A University in Busan, South Korea. The artists are due to meet in person in July next year. Until then, only the data relating to the works will be exchanged. This is a preview exhibition in which data arrives before anything else, thereby transcending time and space. The title “Will You Be My Penpal?” is to be taken literally: a pen-pal exchange. What travels back and forth between the two distant locations of Leipzig and Busan is not text, but visual languages that are carried by digital signals and transformed into different media and materialities.

The participating HGB artists work with code, 3D scans, AI-generated videos, body data and digital reconstruction. This data, which exists in the form of files, commands and renderings, only takes on a physical form when it is actually installed in the exhibition spaces in Busan. The five host artists from the Department of Contemporary Art at Dong-A University, by contrast, respond to this with painting. The brushstrokes on the canvas, the texture of the paint and its physical weight stand in sharp contrast to the immateriality of the transmitted data. Data that has arrived from beyond the screen and canvases exhibited here in person converge on the second floor of Ilsansuji.

‘Will You Be My Penpal?’ is a place where data and materiality, the distant and the here, shift back and forth – and a letter that arrives even now, before the actual meeting next summer in 2027.

Participating artists:
Ronny Aviram, Buba Beboshvili, Lorin Brockhaus, Dania González Sanabria, Karen Kamiya, Martin Nielebock, Annelene Schreikrampf und Gesa Wagner

Period (opening hours):
Tuesday to Sunday and on public holidays: 11 am–5 pm

Venue:
Lindenau-Museum Altenburg im Prinzenpalais des Residenzschlosses Altenburg
Schloss 16
04600 Altenburg

What inspires young artists? What themes do they explore in their artistic practice? The exhibition accompanying the Lindenau Prize, which will be awarded for the third time by the Lindenau Museum in Altenburg in autumn 2026, provides answers to these questions.

For the prize, the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle, the Academy of Graphic Arts and Book Design Leipzig and the Bauhaus University Weimar each nominate two students, who will present their work in the Prinzenpalais at the Altenburg Residential Palace. This year’s promising international artists are: Ronny Aviram, Buba Beboshvili, Lorin Brockhaus, Dania González Sanabria, Karen Kamiya, Martin Nielebock, Annelene Schreikrampf and Gesa Wagner. The artists’ themes and techniques are diverse, so visitors can look forward to fascinating insights into contemporary art. Through the mediums of painting, collage, sculpture, photography, performance, video and installation, these young artists explore themes such as identity, memory, artificial intelligence, traces and social norms.

From among the eight entries, a jury comprising experts and sponsors will select the winner of the Lindenau Prize, which is endowed with 5,000 euros.
A catalogue will be published to accompany the exhibition.

Accompanying programme...

Participating artists:
Robin Becker, Lotta Beckers, Véra Marie Deubner, Luca Diebold, To Fabek, Johanna Gruber, Max Grund, Rahel Scharabi, Ossama Shalgheen (Aseem), Asya Volodina
The performances were created as part of Jule Flierl’s Score Laboratory, as well as within the framework of Anna Zett’s study project ‘Public in Person’.

Venue:
Gewandhaus zu Leipzig
Augustusplatz 8
04109 Leipzig
www.gewandhausorchester.de

For the Democracy Weekend at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig from 4 to 6 September 2026, students from Jule Flierl and Anna Zett’s performative arts class, together with the Gewandhaus Choir conducted by Gregor Meyer, have developed the project ‘Lauschzustand – Manifestations and Spaces of Connection’. On the Sunday of the election in Saxony-Anhalt, the students will present performative pieces along a route, accompanied by the Gewandhaus Choir. The trail leads through the Gewandhaus to locations with a special atmosphere and culminates in a choral gathering in the Mendelssohn Hall, creating a shared musical experience of connection.

For the project, the teaching staff and students have been working artistically on the theme of political participation and public presence. The starting point was a reflection on neutrality as a fiction and democracy as an open group process that challenges us emotionally. The ‘score’ – a kind of musical score or notation for performances – opened up a space of possibilities here for formulating temporary, self-defined rules in the sense of instructions for play, which give rise not only to musical performances but also to social encounters.

At the heart of the semester project, which resulted in both solo and group works, lies the choir as a living space for relationships: a polyphonic structure that at times asserts a collective voice, and at other times invites communication. In various experimental and conceptual ways, the participating artists explore the voice as a mediator between the inner and the outer, the body and language, the individual and society. Democracy emerges here as an open group experience – underpinned by listening, vulnerability and the challenge of being present together.

Programme:

Augustusplatz

• ‘Tea Time’, dialogue performance, Soschka
• ‘Prologue: Standard Rifles (G95A1, MG4, G28, G22 to G25, MG50-1, MZF1, GLM, AG36, MG6, MP7A1, MP5K, Mauser Model 98 and many more)’, performance, Rahel Scharabi
• “es kippt es”, performance by Max Grund with the Gewandhaus Choir
• “SCHREI (chor)”, choral composition, Robin Becker with the Gewandhaus Choir

Main Hall

• “Stabil”, 3 compositions for solo voices, choir and organ, Véra Marie Deubner, with the Gewandhaus Choir
• “I am the sea (أنا البحر)”, vocal performance, Ossama Shalgheen (Aseem)
• “Organum2026”, composition for choir and organ, Luca Diebold with the Gewandhaus Choir

Mendelssohn Hall

• “Dämmerungen”, a participatory composition for solo, duo and choir, by Lotta Beckers, To Fabek and Johanna
  Gruber with the Gewandhaus Choir

This year marks the fifth edition of the Democracy Weekend at the Gewandhaus, which this time takes place under the theme ‘Reading the Signs’. It is dedicated to discourse and social reflection, inviting the audience to collectively examine, contextualise and think through current developments. It is organised in cooperation with the Saxon State Agency for Political Education and is supported by the Commerzbank Foundation, the Krupp Foundation, the Zukunft Gewandhaus zu Leipzig Foundation, the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS and the ‘Zukunftswege Ost’ initiative.

More information on the Democracy Weekend at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig...

Venue:
Richard-Wagner-Hain
Leipzig

Live performance: 10 & 12 September 2026 Audio walk premiere: early April 2027

In the audio walk Chorus versus Monument, the audience is guided through the Richard Wagner Grove in Leipzig by a choir. It was there in 1934 that Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler laid the foundation stone for a Richard Wagner monument that was never completed.

Through this audio walk, the artist Frederike Moormann explores, on the one hand, the historical layers of the grove – from the Weimar Republic through National Socialism and the GDR to the present day.

On the other hand, she engages with the musical work of Richard Wagner, whose own anti-Semitic writings, nationalist public appearances and musical themes resonated strongly with the ideologies of the Nazi regime.

Through an audio walk and a choral concert that deconstructs and samples Wagner’s musical motifs, the grove’s historical layers become accessible and Wagner’s nationalist themes audible in the music. Chor kontra Monument asks what it means to visit a place with this history, named after a controversial composer, today, and poses the question: What was built here, and for whom?

To mark the partial renovation of the eastern section of the Richard Wagner Grove, *Chor kontra Monument* will have its world premiere on 10 and 12 September 2026 as a live performance with wireless headphones. From April 2027, upon completion of the renovation and to mark the opening exhibition of the project series at the Richard Wagner Grove, and featuring further contributions by Maya Schweizer (Berlin) and the Kubik collective (Dresden/Leipzig/ Weimar), the audio walk is to be permanently accessible via a QR code on users’ own smartphones.

Chor kontra Monument is being created in collaboration with Nora Benamara, Maximilian Bischofberger, Felix Deufel, Chara Giannou, Helgard Haug, Hauptmeier | Recker, Julia Kurz, Lefteris Krysalis, Marie-Louise Monrad-Møller and Walburga Walde

About the artist: Frederike Moormann is a radio and sound artist. She lives and works in Leipzig and Weimar. Her site-specific practice combines archival research, vocal experiments and radio transmissions. The collaborative audio walk ‘Space has become a crowded place’ (Theater RAMPE, Project Room Namibia, Funkstation Nauen/Brandenburg Museum, Deutschlandfunk Kultur) explores colonial history, trauma and communication infrastructures. Her audio walk “Und gegenüber spielt die Blaskapelle” was awarded the Audiowalk Award in 2024. Since 2020, she has been an artistic collaborator at the Experimental Radio department of the Bauhaus University Weimar.

‘Chor kontra Monument’ marks the start of the ‘Kunst zum Richard-Wagner-Hain’ series, which is being realised in 2027 by the ‘Stadtkuratorin Leipzig’ programme – the City of Leipzig’s programme for art in public spaces – and the Office for Urban Greenery and Waterways, in cooperation with Freiraumkonzepte landscape architects. The project is funded by Musikfonds e.V. and the City of Leipzig’s Department of Culture, and is supported by Hörspielsommer Leipzig.

Venue:
Tempelhof Airport

Hangar 5 & 6 Tempelhofer Damm 45

12101 Berlin

Academy POSITIONS aims to connect artists with key contacts among gallery owners, curators and collectors, in order to ease their transition to working as independent artists and help them gain their first experiences in the art market. The Class of 2026 includes HGB artists Marie Charlotte Elsner and Sophie Constanze Polheim.

Visitors have the unique opportunity to gain a comprehensive insight into a new generation of artists and to support them at an early stage in their careers.

Participating artists:
Eva Noeske, Manuel Cornelius

Venue:
Bistro 21
Hermann-Liebmann-Straße 88
04315 Leipzig
www.bistro21.org/

Partner:
Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen

Oliver Bleckmann and Arvid Jansen, are currently organizing the third edition of the Presskuchen Tour, which this year will take place in Leipzig, Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Amsterdam.

For this series, we are developing a format that is defined by the visibility, location, and size of each exhibition site. In doing so, we deliberately take up the established conventions of selected exhibition spaces and amplify them in specific ways.

We want to highlight the back-and-forth travelling as an artist and underscore it as a central element of practice. This approach has already guided the previous two tour stops, and we aim to revisit it in 2026 in an adapted form.

As a metaphor, we use the imagery of the traveling circus and the stage to communicate the spirit of wandering and showcasing.

Participating artists:
Max Bresele, Frieda Fritzu Henrici, Yunus Hutterer, Elif Muhit, Ayla Saffeels, Caro Schiml, klara stangl

Period (opening hours):
Sunday, 2 pm – 6 pm

Venue:
Weiden Art Society
Ledererstraße 7
92637 Weiden in der Oberpfalz
www.kunstvereinweiden.de

The group exhibition “when we keep each other” explores the question of how we can act in solidarity and as a community in times of social, environmental and political crises. Inspired by the “Solarpunk” exhibition in 2025, the event invites visitors to create spaces of connection – beyond powerlessness and resignation. HGB student Klara Stangl is also featured in the exhibition with a piece. She is studying in Anna Ehrenstein’s photography class specialising in contemporary art.

Special dates:

• 11 September, 8 pm: Opening
• 13 September, 2.00 pm: Hutza Café
• 18 September, 8.00 pm: Kollapscafé
• 19 September, 7.30 pm: Coordination in the absence of state institutions
• 20 September, 4.00 pm Emergency rucksack
• 25 September, 6.00 pm KoOp Art Night
• 27 September, 6.00 pm Digital Bug Out Bag
• 4 October, 5.00 pm Reading + Küfa
• 6 October, 6.00 pm Hutza Café
• 7 October, 6 pm Mutual Aid
• 10 October, 7.00 pm: How to make agriculture and food distribution resilient for the future
  
  
  

Venue:
Richard-Wagner-Hain
Leipzig

Live performance: 10 & 12 September 2026 Audio walk premiere: early April 2027

In the audio walk Chorus versus Monument, the audience is guided through the Richard Wagner Grove in Leipzig by a choir. It was there in 1934 that Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler laid the foundation stone for a Richard Wagner monument that was never completed.

Through this audio walk, the artist Frederike Moormann explores, on the one hand, the historical layers of the grove – from the Weimar Republic through National Socialism and the GDR to the present day.

On the other hand, she engages with the musical work of Richard Wagner, whose own anti-Semitic writings, nationalist public appearances and musical themes resonated strongly with the ideologies of the Nazi regime.

Through an audio walk and a choral concert that deconstructs and samples Wagner’s musical motifs, the grove’s historical layers become accessible and Wagner’s nationalist themes audible in the music. Chor kontra Monument asks what it means to visit a place with this history, named after a controversial composer, today, and poses the question: What was built here, and for whom?

To mark the partial renovation of the eastern section of the Richard Wagner Grove, *Chor kontra Monument* will have its world premiere on 10 and 12 September 2026 as a live performance with wireless headphones. From April 2027, upon completion of the renovation and to mark the opening exhibition of the project series at the Richard Wagner Grove, and featuring further contributions by Maya Schweizer (Berlin) and the Kubik collective (Dresden/Leipzig/ Weimar), the audio walk is to be permanently accessible via a QR code on users’ own smartphones.

Chor kontra Monument is being created in collaboration with Nora Benamara, Maximilian Bischofberger, Felix Deufel, Chara Giannou, Helgard Haug, Hauptmeier | Recker, Julia Kurz, Lefteris Krysalis, Marie-Louise Monrad-Møller and Walburga Walde

About the artist: Frederike Moormann is a radio and sound artist. She lives and works in Leipzig and Weimar. Her site-specific practice combines archival research, vocal experiments and radio transmissions. The collaborative audio walk ‘Space has become a crowded place’ (Theater RAMPE, Project Room Namibia, Funkstation Nauen/Brandenburg Museum, Deutschlandfunk Kultur) explores colonial history, trauma and communication infrastructures. Her audio walk “Und gegenüber spielt die Blaskapelle” was awarded the Audiowalk Award in 2024. Since 2020, she has been an artistic collaborator at the Experimental Radio department of the Bauhaus University Weimar.

‘Chor kontra Monument’ marks the start of the ‘Kunst zum Richard-Wagner-Hain’ series, which is being realised in 2027 by the ‘Stadtkuratorin Leipzig’ programme – the City of Leipzig’s programme for art in public spaces – and the Office for Urban Greenery and Waterways, in cooperation with Freiraumkonzepte landscape architects. The project is funded by Musikfonds e.V. and the City of Leipzig’s Department of Culture, and is supported by Hörspielsommer Leipzig.

Participating artists:
Huniti Goldox, Charlotte Eifler, Felix Pacholleck, Raisan Hameed, Vanessa Amoah Opoku and others

Period (opening hours):
11 am – 10 pm

Venue:
silent green Kulturquartier Berlin
Gerichtstraße 35
13347 Berlin
www.silent-green.net/

Partner:
Organised by eCommemoration (Körber Foundation) in collaboration with transmediale, CTM and VideoClub.

Curated exhibitions, performative works and discussions at this festival explore how memory is addressed in the age of algorithms, artificial intelligence and digital media – beyond institutional narratives and straddling the boundaries between documentation, fiction and speculative practice.
Also taking part are graduates and students from the HGB Leipzig: The duo Huniti Goldox, Charlotte Eifler, Felix Pacholleck, Raisan Hameed and Vanessa Amoah Opoku will present transgressive artistic works on both days of the festival that push boundaries and challenge official historical narratives.

Transgressive Memory is a new festival that brings together artistic and critical research to understand memory as a living process – shaped by technologies, power relations and often unheard voices. The programme includes exhibitions, performances, lectures and discussions that outline alternative visions for the present and the future.

Further information & full programme

Organised by eCommemoration (Körber Foundation) in cooperation with transmediale, CTM and VideoClub.

Venue:
Museo Reina Sofia
C. de Sta. Isabel, 52
28012 Madrid

The Machine Dreams of Smoke arises from the Museo Reina Sofía’s invitation to Eli Cortiñas to revisit The Most Given of Givens, a video-graphic work the artist made in 2016, and a piece recently acquired for the Museo Reina Sofía Collections. The exhibition returns to, expands upon and updates research started by Cortiñas more than a decade ago, in a work which addresses the relationships between the history of cinema, the history of museums and recent digital culture from a perspective that reveals the complex colonial apparatus that moulds the gaze and the construction of imagery and knowledge. Part of contemporary historiography presumes that history is not neutral, that all historical narratives involve a selection, an interpretation that gives rise to omissions and dominant historical narratives that have helped to consolidate the power of certain social groups. Cortiñas suggests, moreover, that algorithms are not neutral: each new technological tool at our disposal is a device loaded with a symbolic function that participates in the configuration of new epistemological regimes. Ultimately, Eli Cortiñas invites us to be wary of the apparent transparency of images, technology and museum apparatus, asking us to question these visual and cognitive systems not only for what they show, but also for the power relations that sustain them, and for the contexts, bodies, memories and historical experiences that produce and cross through them. More information...

Participating artists:
Paula Doepfner, Lotte Meret Effinger, Andrea Freiberg, Sabine Groß, Cornelia Herfurtner, Dina Khouri, Benjamin Kunath, Kaarina-Sirkku Kurz, Marei Loellmann, Uta Neumann, Lisa Peters, Sophie Constanze Polheim, Wagehe Raufi, Katharina Reinsbach, Maxi Thom, Emma Zimmermann

Period (opening hours):
Tuesday – Sunday, 11 am – 6 pm

Venue:
Haus am Kleistpark
Grunewaldstraße 6-7
10823 Berlin

The Tempelhof-Schöneberg Municipal Galleries organise the annual Haus am Kleistpark Art Prize. Under the overarching theme “FRACTURE”, the works of the nominated artists will be on display from September to December in a group exhibition at the Haus am Kleistpark in Berlin. Sophie Constanze Polheim, a postgraduate at the HGB Leipzig, is represented in the exhibition with her series of works entitled “Nightingale’s Tale”.

Venue:
bautzner69
Bautzner Str. 69
01099 Dresden

Opening of the exhibition with a welcome address by Juliane Gatomski, Hermann Ilgen Foundation, and a book launch with the artist

The publication features a text by Ilija Matusko.

WORK
Social Justice / Part 2 – Photographs by Susanne Keichel
22×28.4 cm, 36 pages, perfect-bound
bautzner69/publish&print
ISBN: 978-3-946339-70-0, €12

Venue:
Museo Reina Sofia
C. de Sta. Isabel, 52
28012 Madrid


On Images and Disobedience. Carte Blanche to Eli Cortiñas is an audiovisual series curated by artist Eli Cortiñas, in dialogue with her installation The Machine Dreams of Smoke, on view in the Museo Reina Sofía. The programme underscores the concerns and confluences of her creative world, and the crossover of political critique, post-internet delirium, protest film and contemporary theory. Moreover, it touches on narratives which unsettle, defy or question the hegemonic regime of the gaze, stretching across three sessions in which films and video works inhabited by imagery, disputing archives, technological systems and memories accommodated in bodies, non-human beings and the land are entwined. The image does not emerge here as a neutral surface upon which the world appears, but rather as a disputed territory where categories of the human are made: lives are illuminated, while others remain in darkness. More information...

Venue:
WERKSCHAU Halle 12
Baumwollspinnerei
04179 Leipzig

At the end of the summer term, the HGB is presenting the final projects of the postgraduate students from all disciplines from the study year of 2025/26. These projects are the result of the two-year postgraduate programme at the HGB, which deepens and broadens students’ artistic-practical and artistic-academic skills.

The following students sat their examinations this year:
Adam Alezrah, Ronja Brainstorm, Eva Gräbeldinger, Anastasiia Grigoriadi, Rawan Hassan, Sophie Constanze Polheim, Marinus Reuter, Catherine Sanke, David Schröder, Svetlana Shilankova, Karolina Sobel, Liu Tianxu, Anali Vakili Ardebili, Hannah Witte.

This year marks the tenth time that a graduate has been honoured with the G2 Kunsthalle Master’s Student Prize. The award is worth €10,000 and includes a free studio space for 12 months.

Participating artists:
Jana Ehls, Jonas Erler, Benjamin Friedle, Takeki Hayashida, Lucie Löchel, Anita Orlarescu, Heidi Specker, Stephen Stahn

Venue:
Käthe Kollwitz Museum Cologne
Neumarkt 18-24
50667 Köln
www.kollwitz.de/

RE: stands for ‘regarding’ [English], meaning ‘to refer to’ – and at the same time for ‘further reflection’ and ‘reinterpretation’. During the 2025/26 academic year, Heidi Specker’s photography class at the HGB Leipzig engaged intensively with ‘Re: Kollwitz’. The result is 19 works in various media – ranging from sculpture to photography, film and installation. Eight of these works are now on display as part of the ‘Bildstörung’ series at the Kollwitz Museum in Cologne.

The works approach her from different perspectives: Kollwitz as an artist, as a woman, as a contemporary witness or as a politically engaged individual. They draw on her body of work, her artistic techniques, as well as her personal accounts in diaries, letters and photographs.

The result is a range of interpretations that are personal without remaining private. Some draw on Kollwitz’s visual language or motifs, whilst others examine the material conditions of her creative process, the person behind the work, or gaps in her oeuvre. What unites them is the attempt not merely to view Kollwitz through a historical lens, but to re-examine her themes and her stance from a contemporary perspective.

As much as Käthe Kollwitz’s works stand alone in their expression and message, a look at both history and the present clearly shows how deeply her work is embedded in an ongoing artistic dialogue. This dialogue ranges from a general thematic, motivic and technical affinity with the works of other artists from every century to specific references to Käthe Kollwitz by later generations.

In our new exhibition series ‘Bildstörung’, we present works by artists who interact with Kollwitz’s works in various ways. Embedded within the presentation of the collection and set in direct juxtaposition, parallels become apparent on the one hand, whilst at the same time familiar perspectives are challenged, new associations are allowed to emerge and discourses are broadened.

Heide Specker’s photography class at the HGB Leipzig is the second instalment in this
series.

Venue:
Ecole nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon
8 bis Quai Saint-Vincent
69001 Lyon


Art historian Michal B. Ron is an experienced host of Marcel Broodthaers Memorial Birthday Parties, which take place every January 28 and sometimes also halfway, July 28, when another Marcel (Duchamp) has his (full) birthday. A few of these yearly M.B. Memorial Birthday Parties have been celebrated together with An Paenhuysen, and for the Department of Filliousophy, Michal and An share their party expertise to create a Birthday of Art at la fête permanente of the Biennale on October 17, one of the key dates in Filliou’s Whispered History of Art on the origin of art. 2026 marks the 100th birthday of Robert Filliou (17.1.1926 – 2.12.1987) and the 1 000 063 Birthday of Art. How to celebrate art? We will do so at la fête permanente on October 17, one of the key dates in Filliou’s Whispered History of Art. “A propos de fête,” wrote Marianne Filliou concerning the annual anniversary party, “Robert’s proposal for Art’s Birthday is to take the artworks off the walls, out of the display cases, and so on, and simply celebrate art.” Or as Filliou put it in 1973 on the occasion of the first official Birthday Party of Art: “How about you joining the funmaking?”

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

15–17 October 2026 Workshops / Talks / Events
16–22 October 2026 Exhibition 
22 October 2026 Closing event

In 2016, the HGB Leipzig established the Academy for Transcultural Exchange (AtA), Germany’s first regular degree programme for people with a refugee background in the fields of fine art and graphic design.

From the outset, the Academy for Transcultural Exchange saw itself as more than just a study programme. With its establishment, the HGB recognised migration as a fundamental part of our society and set out the aim of further developing the art college itself as a transcultural space. Facilitating access has always meant transforming the institution itself: broadening artistic and academic perspectives, challenging a white Western canon, and creating the conditions for a course of study that critically engages with discrimination.

With a programme of exhibitions and events, the HGB is celebrating the Academy for Transcultural Exchange’s tenth anniversary and reflecting on its history and present.
The social and political context has changed fundamentally since 2016. Funding programmes that made the establishment of the Academy possible have largely come to an end or are under threat of cuts. Programmes for refugee students have been discontinued at many higher education institutions. At the same time, terms such as ‘internationalisation’ and ‘diversity’ are gaining prominence in higher education policy, whilst flight, forced migration and their historical and contemporary causes are often overlooked.

Based on an understanding of transculturality as a process of encounter and mutual transformation, the programme also looks to the future. Former and current members of the Academy for Transcultural Exchange will come together with guests from the worlds of art, academia and higher education in lectures, discussions, workshops and an exhibition. The focus is on the future of the Academy for Transcultural Exchange at the HGB and the question of which artistic and institutional practices facilitate transcultural exchange.

Venue:
HGB-Stand, Leipziger Buchmesse
Halle 5, D101

"Kuckuck" by Jannis Weu observes how wage labour mutates the body, fragments time and how the bureaucratic system in which children are embedded also constructs them. The text sees itself as a counter-form to the development reports and performance documentation that are part of everyday working life in residential groups. They give the illusion of documentation, but in doing so shape the lives and experiences of the children before they are able to speak.

A syllable is formed from a sound, an incomplete word. The narrative jeopardises binaries of behaviour and degeneracy, madness and sanity, environment and inner world. The text collages poetic testimony about the unmasking of the nuclear family as a supposed space of protection and growth, but actually a possessive, individualistic, hierarchising, brutal form of cohabitation, with experiences of exhaustion from the shift work of a queer pedagogical professional. The impossibility of just care in the capitalist system reverberates in images of dissolving physicality.

Jannis Weu is an artist, author and educational professional. Jannis is currently studying undergraduate media art with Eli Cortiñas, Stine Marie Jacobsen and
Mareike Bernien.

Participating artists:
Franziska Dathe, Klara Fischer, Aya Ganor, Toni Gerhardt, Linda Göhrs, Bente Heyer, Selma Kan, Jette Kleindienst, Mathilda Köhler, Fox Kynast, Gisou Rosenthal, Klara Schöll, Sonia Shono, Matthias Sterff, Luise Tschakert

Venue:
K2 im Allgemeinen Konsumverein Braunschweig
Hinter Liebfrauen 2
38100 Braunschweig

A group of students is exploring the theme of the ‘amygdala complex’: eerie paintings, animated ghosts, childlike innocence and strange figures all come together at K2.

The challenge of exhibiting together with fellow students in a relatively small space presents opportunities for the group and the young artists, who are finding their way through a variety of media and subjects. This exciting process is being supervised by Marthe Lallemand, an artistic collaborator based in Leipzig, and forms part of the Konsumverein’s professional development programme.

Venue:
HGB Bibliothek

"Half-titles" — Fliegende Blätter by Marthe Lallemand presents a selection of titles from the HGB Library's magazine collection, including the journal Fliegende Blätter (1844–1944), Imago, FKW, Imprimatur, Reichsdrucke, Das Plakat, and others. The selection follows a feminist thread through the collection. Placed side by side, these titles share a common vocabulary: traces of what a culture displays or conceals when it is not "unveiled."

From each title, the half-title, frontispiece, endpaper, cover, blank page, or colophon is reproduced by hand through various techniques — pencil drawing, relief printing, or painting — in a uniform format of 76 × 56 cm, regardless of meaning, classification, or paper quality. Wrapped in sewn camouflage sleeves made of tea paper, the posters integrate site-specifically into

For the ‘Hidden Treasures’ exhibition series, publications from the HGB Library’s stacks – which are not otherwise freely accessible – are presented. Often, only a subtly placed, colour-coded bookmark or a coloured backing indicates that the item is part of the exhibition.

Participating artists:
Students and teachers of the HBK Braunschweig, the weißensee kunsthochschule berlin and the HGB Leipzig

Venue:
Galerie der HBK Braunschweig
Johannes-Selenka-Platz 1
38118 Braunschweig

In the exhibition "Mirrored - Perspectives on Contemporary Etching", students and teachers from the Braunschweig University of Art, the weißensee kunsthochschule Berlin and the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig present around 50 current positions in intaglio printing.

With the emergence of the woodcut in the early 15th century, copperplate engraving in the middle of the century and finally etching shortly before 1500, printmaking became an art genre in its own right. With personalities such as Johannes Gutenberg (ca. 1400-1468), inventor of letterpress printing with movable type, and the exceptional woodcut and etching artist Albrecht Dürer (1471- 1528), Germany can look back on a centuries-old graphic tradition.

Today, it is the art academies in particular that pass on this heritage and at the same time provide new impetus. In their workshops, students receive comprehensive training in classical and experimental intaglio printing techniques - from drypoint, line etching, aquatint, vernis mou, reservage, mezzotint, shabaquatinta, but also techniques such as screen printing on printing plates or processes associated with photography such as cliché verre or photogravure through to interfaces with the digital world. The training programmes at the universities in the three participating federal states are basically the same and yet there are subtle, visible differences.

The workshop directors Maria Ondrej, Braunschweig University of Art, Pedro Boese, weißensee kunsthochschule berlin and Robert Schmiedel, Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts, together with Katharina Walter, Museum für Druckkunst Leipzig, came up with the idea of launching a cross-university exhibition project. The aim is to visualise the diversity and quality of training in the field of etching and at the same time to focus on the next generation of artists. Eight to ten students from each university are invited to take part.

At the same time, the project is a first step towards strengthening similarities and cooperation between the institutions in the long term, working out differences and also providing new impetus. The co-operation is an important contribution to keeping gravure printing alive as an intangible cultural heritage.

The results of the "Mirrored - Perspectives on Contemporary Etching" exhibition will be made accessible to the public at various locations in Germany. The exhibition will kick off at the Museum für Druckkunst Leipzig.

Further exhibition venues are planned

• Gallery Alte Feuerwache (25.11.26 - 17.01.2027)
  Marchlewskistraße 6, 10243 Berlin
• Municipal Gallery Wolfsburg (04.12. - 31.12.2026)
  Schloßstrasse 8, 38448 Wolfsburg

Venue:
Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig
Wächterstraße 11
04107 Leipzig

Following the successful Faculty Days in 2016 and 2017, the Book Design/Graphic Design department’s alumni event is returning to the HGB. Over two days, students, alumni and teaching staff will come together to discuss the future of visual communication, gain insights into different career paths and forge both old and new connections.

On Friday, the programme will open with a panel discussion on the topic ‘AI and the Future of Graphic Design’. Following this, and on Saturday, 32 alumni will give short talks presenting their work and experiences since graduating. Friday evening will conclude with a social gathering in the HGB’s atrium. Further information will follow shortly.

Venue:
Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte (MKK) Dortmund
Hansastr. 3
44137 Dortmund

Presentation of the video works ‘Fragments of Social Realities, Part 1 and Part 2’ and the series ‘School’ and ‘Work’ from ‘Social Justice’, Part 1 and Part 2, as part of the event series ‘CLASSROOMS. Critical Perspectives on Social (In)justice’ featuring: Alejandra Arévalo, Verena Brakonier, Josephine Findeisen, Susanne Keichel, Ilija Matusko, Quang Nguyen, Aslı Özçelik, Prof. Dr Francis Seeck

Participating artists:
Abdullah Al Hajali / Franziska Dathe / Aya Ganor / Toni Gerhardt / Bente Heyer/ Selma Kan / Jette Kleindienst / Mathilda Koehler / Else Kosch / Fox Kynast / Jorinde Monroe / Anna Polláková / Gisou Rosenthal / Klara Schöll / Sonia Shono / Matthias Sterff / Luise Tschakert / Anali Vakili / Lou Vinter

Period (opening hours):
Monday – Friday: 1.00 pm – 5.00 pm (On Tuesdays and Thursdays, please report to the Zella-Mehlis Tourist Information Centre first!) Saturday: 09:00 – 13:00 (Please check in at the Zella-Mehlis Tourist

Venue:
Galerie im Bürgerhaus
Louis-Anschütz-Straße 28
98544 Zella-Mehlis

Partner:
Rhön-Rennsteig-Sparkasse / Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Hessen-Thüringen / insüdthüringen.de / Architekturbüro Projektscheune Lönnecker / Freistaat Thüringen / Staatskanzlei / Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Thüringen / WTA GmbH

Printed graphics enter a space that is already speaking. Layers and overlays, juxtapositions — on paper and in multiples — are not only a constitutive principle of printmaking, but also traces of an engagement that takes time. Can the architectural space, with its history, itself enter into this practice — from container to content, from frame to representation?

What language do we wish to develop that sets itself apart from spatial structures or transforms them? In collaboration with Marthe Lallemand and Robert Schmiedel, head of the etching workshop, the class is developing works that explore printmaking as a form of spatial thinking. From copperplate engravings to woodcuts, from framed works to site-specific concepts, both site-specific and non-site-specific works are on display.

The gallery in the community centre, with its print workshop, becomes a dialogue partner in its own right.

Period (opening hours):
Monday to Sunday, 10 am – 6 pm

Venue:
Große Kunstschau Worpswede
Lindenallee 5
27726 Worpswede
www.worpswede-museen.de/index.html

Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876–1907) played a major part in Worpswede being regarded today as one of Europe’s most important artists’ villages. Within just a few years, she created an extensive body of work that was artistically unique, though it was not recognised until decades after her untimely death. Today, the painter is regarded as a pioneer of modern art.

The Paula Modersohn-Becker Art Prize is a living, creatively evolving tribute to this extraordinary artist. The district of Osterholz has been awarding the prize every two years since 2010. The exhibitions accompanying the art prize are held simultaneously at the Große Kunstschau Worpswede and the Barkenhoff.

Three prizes are awarded: the main prize, open to entrants from across Germany; a special prize for artists from Bremen and the district of Osterholz; and the Young Artists’ Prize for emerging artists aged 32 and under. The award ceremony will take place as part of the exhibition opening on 21 November.

Participating artists:
Students and teachers of the HBK Braunschweig, the weißensee kunsthochschule berlin and the HGB Leipzig

Venue:
Galerie Alte Feuerwache
Marchlewskistraße 6
10243 Berlin

In the exhibition "Mirrored - Perspectives on Contemporary Etching", students and teachers from the Braunschweig University of Art, the weißensee kunsthochschule Berlin and the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig present around 50 current positions in intaglio printing.

With the emergence of the woodcut in the early 15th century, copperplate engraving in the middle of the century and finally etching shortly before 1500, printmaking became an art genre in its own right. With personalities such as Johannes Gutenberg (ca. 1400-1468), inventor of letterpress printing with movable type, and the exceptional woodcut and etching artist Albrecht Dürer (1471- 1528), Germany can look back on a centuries-old graphic tradition.

Today, it is the art academies in particular that pass on this heritage and at the same time provide new impetus. In their workshops, students receive comprehensive training in classical and experimental intaglio printing techniques - from drypoint, line etching, aquatint, vernis mou, reservage, mezzotint, shabaquatinta, but also techniques such as screen printing on printing plates or processes associated with photography such as cliché verre or photogravure through to interfaces with the digital world. The training programmes at the universities in the three participating federal states are basically the same and yet there are subtle, visible differences.

The workshop directors Maria Ondrej, Braunschweig University of Art, Pedro Boese, weißensee kunsthochschule berlin and Robert Schmiedel, Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts, together with Katharina Walter, Museum für Druckkunst Leipzig, came up with the idea of launching a cross-university exhibition project. The aim is to visualise the diversity and quality of training in the field of etching and at the same time to focus on the next generation of artists. Eight to ten students from each university are invited to take part.

At the same time, the project is a first step towards strengthening similarities and cooperation between the institutions in the long term, working out differences and also providing new impetus. The co-operation is an important contribution to keeping gravure printing alive as an intangible cultural heritage.

The results of the "Mirrored - Perspectives on Contemporary Etching" exhibition will be made accessible to the public at various locations in Germany. The exhibition will kick off at the Museum für Druckkunst Leipzig.

Further exhibition venues are planned

• Municipal Gallery Wolfsburg (04.12. - 31.12.2026)
  Schloßstrasse 8, 38448 Wolfsburg

Venue:
Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig
Wächterstraße 11
04107 Leipzig


More information will follow.

Participating artists:
Students and teachers of the HBK Braunschweig, the weißensee kunsthochschule berlin and the HGB Leipzig

Venue:
Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg
Schloßstraße 8
38448 Wolfsburg

In the exhibition "Mirrored - Perspectives on Contemporary Etching", students and teachers from the Braunschweig University of Art, the weißensee kunsthochschule Berlin and the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig present around 50 current positions in intaglio printing.

With the emergence of the woodcut in the early 15th century, copperplate engraving in the middle of the century and finally etching shortly before 1500, printmaking became an art genre in its own right. With personalities such as Johannes Gutenberg (ca. 1400-1468), inventor of letterpress printing with movable type, and the exceptional woodcut and etching artist Albrecht Dürer (1471- 1528), Germany can look back on a centuries-old graphic tradition.

Today, it is the art academies in particular that pass on this heritage and at the same time provide new impetus. In their workshops, students receive comprehensive training in classical and experimental intaglio printing techniques - from drypoint, line etching, aquatint, vernis mou, reservage, mezzotint, shabaquatinta, but also techniques such as screen printing on printing plates or processes associated with photography such as cliché verre or photogravure through to interfaces with the digital world. The training programmes at the universities in the three participating federal states are basically the same and yet there are subtle, visible differences.

The workshop directors Maria Ondrej, Braunschweig University of Art, Pedro Boese, weißensee kunsthochschule berlin and Robert Schmiedel, Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts, together with Katharina Walter, Museum für Druckkunst Leipzig, came up with the idea of launching a cross-university exhibition project. The aim is to visualise the diversity and quality of training in the field of etching and at the same time to focus on the next generation of artists. Eight to ten students from each university are invited to take part.

At the same time, the project is a first step towards strengthening similarities and cooperation between the institutions in the long term, working out differences and also providing new impetus. The co-operation is an important contribution to keeping gravure printing alive as an intangible cultural heritage.

The results of the "Mirrored - Perspectives on Contemporary Etching" exhibition will be made accessible to the public at various locations in Germany.