Calendar

Venue:
FOTO ARSENAL WIEN
Arsenal Objekt 19A
1030 Wien

How can the future be imagined beyond normative categories - in images, bodies and stories? Roxana Rios and DeLovie Kwagala deal with questions of belonging, uprooting and resistance in their artistic practice. It is not only about gender or identity, but also about questions of migration, environmental justice and making marginalised perspectives visible. The panel, moderated by Djamila Grandits, understands queering as a recurring practice - and asks how spaces can be created that are open to all.

Venue:
HGB entrance hall
Wächterstraße 11
04107 Leipzig

As part of this workshop and its public activation, the university's atrium will become a space of sonic entanglements: a sonic body, a vibrating space, a collective instrument - an architecture for "Sonic Kinships". Resonating auditory awareness and reciprocal action, we transpose the location, participating artists and listeners into bodies that sound in themselves, performative entities and interwoven echoes.

Anna Schimkat is a sound and installation artist whose work deals with site-specificity, acoustic ecology and spatial listening. Known for public sound interventions in Leipzig and beyond, she explores sound art through installations and performances. Using self-built instruments and field recordings, she creates spaces that sharpen perception and invite interaction.

Organised as part of (Un)Learning Digitalities - Programme on the Practice and Theory of the Digital with Max Schneider, Artistic Associate for Audio and Eliza Goldox, Office for Digital Teaching.

The project is co-funded by the European Union and co-financed by tax funds on the basis of the budget approved by the Saxon State Parliament.

Venue:
TTTT
Klasse für Installation und Raum, HGB R. 220

Partner:
Carglass Taucha


Pre-Post-Vandalism as reflection on the beauty of DIY fixed broken car windows.

"This is water."
_D. F. Wallace

Prof. Michael Riedel
HARD DRIVE Lecture [11] : Default setting, self-provocation.
Wednesday, o8.1o. 2o25
1o:oo h, Room 3.05, HGB

HARD DRIVE instead of EASY GOING when it comes to managing the flood of data.
And the question: Is my drive a work of art?
The HARD DRIVE lecture series focuses on the practical examination of the user interface of the digital storage medium as a carrier of collected ART FILES.

Period (opening hours):
Tue, Wed 10 am - 6 pm Thu, Fri 10 am - 8 pm Sat, Sun 10 am - 6 pm

Venue:
Museum Folkwang
Museumsplatz 1
45128 Essen

Malte Uchtmann from the class for photography and media and the class expanded cinema is part of the award-winning exhibition of the Wüstenrot Documentary Photography Award 15. In his award-winning video and sound installation ANT*HOLOGY: De/Bugging the cultural history of ants, Malte Uchtmann uses the representation of ants to explore how our perception is influenced by our social embedding and the possibilities of acquiring knowledge. The cultural history of ants becomes the starting point for an examination of human social forms.

The exhibition shows new works by young artists that were created as part of the 15th round of awards. The Wüstenrot Foundation's Documentary Photography Prizes are the most important awards of their kind in Germany. Together with the Photographic Collection of the Museum Folkwang, they have been awarded every two years since 1994 to young artists from German universities and academies who use contemporary documentary image strategies and forms of representation to question the present. The works are shown in a travelling exhibition. A catalogue will be published to accompany the exhibition. A selection of the works will be included in the Museum Folkwang's photographic collection, where they will be available for research and future exhibition projects.

Participating artists:
Axxenne, representing Bye Bye Binary

Period (opening hours):
10:00 AM–06:00 PM

Venue:
Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig
Wächterstraße 11
04107 Leipzig

This workshop invites students to explore the idea of the living archive — a collaborative, evolving process that centers lived experience, collective memory, and creative experimentation.

Working with tools from graphic design — including but not limited to typography — we’ll reflect on how our stories, identities, and struggles shape the ways we design.

You don’t need any prior experience in type design to take part: all visual languages and voices are welcome.

Through research, conversation, and hands-on making, participants will co-create a printed artefact — a zine, poster, or hybrid format — that gives form to what needs to be remembered, questioned, or reimagined.Together, we’ll think of design not as a neutral container, but as a space of care, resistance, and radical possibility.

The workshop is organised by the Team Diversity Development. Registration: kervinsp@hgb-leipzig.de. 

The registration spots are now full.

More information:

https://typotheque.genderfluid.space
https://www.instagram.com/bye.byebinary/

Participating artists:
Sina and Sami, representing Fehras Publishing Practices

Period (opening hours):
10:00 AM–06:00 PM

Venue:
Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig
Wächterstraße 11
04107 Leipzig

Fehras Collective warmly invites participants to join us in investigating new aesthetic strategies for the future of publishing. At a time when content can be generated without human presence, it becomes urgent to recall publishing as an embodied practice. For us, this means remembering the symphony of hands and bodies involved in producing published material, and returning our attention to the ways content can be reborn through gestures and contemporary bodies. In the digital age of alien intelligent agents, embodiment becomes the last authentic trace of the human.We begin by sharing a story from our artistic research into Lotus: Afro-Asian Writings, and how this journey led to our arrest by Cypriot agents at Larnaka International Airport before flying back. This incident transformed into the piece Article 1 – Human Dignity, published in Makan Journal by Think Tanger this summer. On this first day, we will talk about our practice and some of the formal questions we faced while preparing this publication. Through conversation, we hope to begin formulating participants’ own questions, which will guide the work of the second day.On the second day, we will start with a short presentation of our evolving project Hadar Halal – حاضر حلال, which opens a space to think about how collectivity emerges between us. With this in mind, we will work together to create a booklet for Hadar Halal – حاضر حلال , drawing on the questions raised during the first day and extending them into collective publishing practice.

The workshop is organised by the Team Diversity Development. Registration: kervinsp@hgb-leipzig.de

More information:

https://www.fehraspublishingpractices.org/
https://www.instagram.com/fehras_publishing_practices

Participating artists:
Editor and artist Ute Richter; designers Nelly Nakahara and Gerrit Brocks

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

The Stiftung Buchkunst and the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig invite you to the opening of the exhibition "The Most Beautiful German Books 2025". Visitors will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the 25 award-winning books of the year, browse through them, touch them and discuss their design and meaning. The exhibition will be complemented by talks with players from the design and book scene who will discuss the future of books and their visual language.

At the opening of the exhibition, the award-winning book Prototyp 1928-33 will be presented in a discussion with the publisher and artist Ute Richter and the designers Nelly Nakahara and Gerrit Brocks. They will talk about the significance of the work, the special design and the history of the Leipzig School of Labour - an educational project whose influence still reverberates today.

Admission free, GfZK Auditorium

>>> Further information

Participating artists:
Raisa Bosich, Eliane Diur, Hillerbrand+Magsamen, Julia Hochbaum, INK, Selma Kan, Soojie Kang, Rosa Kirsch, Falko Kitsche, Benjamin Kunath, Kaarina Sirkku Kurz, Therese Mieth, Chiemi Miura, Theresa Möller, Lisa Palm, Karlotta Pöschko, A.B.Rausch, Gabi Rets, Janek Sänger, Nina Santamarina, Andreas Schlesinger, Andreas Schröder, Oliver Schwulst, Tayyib Sen, Felicia Simon, Studio JUMI, Jeanette Szirmay, Franca Ullrich (Frank Jewels), Nayeli Vega Vargas, Martin Voigt, Marco Zebrowski, Ivo Zibulla, Martin Ziegler, Rei Zukidou

Period (opening hours):
Tue - Fri 4 - 7 pm / Sat - Sun 2 - 7 pm

Venue:
WERKSCHAU Halle 12
Baumwollspinnerei
04179 Leipzig

The exhibition "GEFLECHT" by the Kunstverein Zentrale für Kunst e. V. brings together 34 German and international artistic positions from 10 October to 26 October 2025 in WERKSCHAU Hall 12 on the grounds of the Leipzig cotton mill.

The vernissage will be celebrated on 10 October from 6 p.m. with an opening speech and music programme.

Braids are created in nature, in our thoughts, in our hands. They carry memories, traditions, identities - and thus also us humans. They form a web of ideas and stories. Held by tension, carried by patterns... Nothing stands alone. Everything intertwines.

In the group show, visitors are invited to see and scrutinise the diverse connections between our everyday lives and our environment in a new way. What at first glance may seem confusing or incidental - relationships, traditions, networks, structures, patterns - can be experienced and understood in the exhibition space. At a time when social cohesion, ecological dependencies and political and ethical structures are increasingly coming under pressure, "GEFLECHT" offers a space for reflection:

Which connections carry us? Which ones restrict us? And how can new connections be conceived?

Participating artists:
C. Bain, Tianning Deng, Lynn Elis, Louisa Havránková, Jonas Kilian, Eliška Klimešová, Richard Kovalovský, Pauli Linke, Kristýna Mikulková, Erika Nguyen Thu Trang, Mimo Rapp, Dominik Schabel, Maya Terkawi, Malte Uchtmann, Sasha Velich, Jannis Weu

Venue:
Metro A Můstek,
New Town,
Prague 1
(entrance to the metro station)


A collaboration between the Studio for Documentary Strategies (Markéta Kinterová and Veronika Daňhelová) at the FAMU - Film and Television School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and the Photography and Media Class (Ines Schaber and Susanne Keichel) at the HGB - Academy of Visual Arts, Leipzig.
The project is part of the Fotograf Zone Festival.

>>> More information

Participating artists:
Hanna Antonsson, Jan Baszak, Yutaro Inagaki, Martin Maeller, Olivia Rode Hvass, Anna Soz, Juli Winterstein

Venue:
Gallery SLUG
Eisenbahnstraße 5
04315 Leipzig

Partner:
Funded by Kulturamt Leipzig

Dead Dogs Don’t Die explores death, grief, and tenderness through personal and societal mythologies. Here, grief is not a passive state but an active, transformative force—one that resists linear narratives of loss and healing. Instead, it lingers, mutates, and entwines itself with memory and desire.

Curated by Colette Patterson.

Participating artists:
Göksu Baysal, Sophia Hallmann, Nanna Kaiser, Lasse Müller, Bianca Phos, Anna Raoh, Aylin Derya Stahl, Leah Zhang
curated by Helena McFadzean

Period (opening hours):
Fri - Sun, 15:00-18:00 and by appointment

Venue:
Techne Sphere Leipzig
Niemeyerstraße 2-5
04179 Leipzig
www.technesphere.de

In a world characterised by acceleration and digital smoothness, Material Shift focuses on what resists compression. The exhibition asks: How do time, memory and transformation leave traces in the material world?Göksu Baysal, Sophia Hallmann, Lasse Müller, Anna Raoh and Aylin Derya Stahl from Berlin, Nanna Kaiser and Bianca Phos from Vienna and Leah Zhang from Amsterdam combine photography and sculpture to create new hybrid forms, work with moulds and place materials in unusual contexts. Their works show what eludes visibility: Residues, imprints, afterimages. Materials become actors: they bear traces of use, heat and transformation and tell of processes that go beyond the obvious.

"Material Shift" shows how human behaviour is alienated from natural and digital systems.

The exhibition takes place in the Techne Sphere Leipzig, a functioning industrial area in which handmade machines are created. Materiality can be experienced here: friction, labour and transformation are present.

Participating artists:
Naima Hassan, Associate Curator and Archivist at Yinka Shonibare Foundation (Y.S.F) and Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation.

Venue:
HGB, Room 2.47

As part of the multi-year Re:assemblages programme, Hassan asks: how can we think with African and Afro-diasporic art archives as living, contested, and future-shaping spaces? Drawing on her curatorial work on the forthcoming Re:assemblages symposium (4–5 November), she will situate G.A.S. Foundation, Lagos in a broader ecosystem of new African art knowledge institutions creating spaces of experimental teaching and encounter.
The session will conclude at the borders of Hassan’s personal practice with a screening of the SITAAD film Oral History Letter: Leyla’s Mother, Hawa S. (2024), produced with Leyla Degan. The film traces vignettes of a former photographic studio in Mogadishu through essay film, photo elicitation, and Degan’s mother’s memories.
Students will be invited to reflect on the references presented to consider new ways of experimenting at the borders of practices, visual archives and geographies.

Naima Hassan is a researcher, curator, and archivist based in Berlin.  
Her practice foregrounds alternative epistemologies, curatorial and archival ethics, with a focus on the epistemic transformation of postcolonial collections and memory cultures. She currently leads Re:assemblages, jointly developed with Guest Artists Space Foundation and Yinka Shonibare Foundation, as Associate Curator and Archivist. In 2022, she founded SITAAD, a platform dedicated to supporting archival research on Somalia and its diaspora. Hassan was a member of the 2024–25 New Currents: Indian Ocean Futures Working Group and currently serves on the Steering Board of TheMuseumsLab.

Participating artists:
Video editing: Siska | Voices: Ewa Wasilewska, Johanna Hoth | Graphics: Stefania Smolkina | Performative activation by HGB students: Robin Becker, Tobias Fabek, Andolie Marguerite, Anna Volodina, Supervision: Anna Zett | INTIMATE BORDER(S) research group

Period (opening hours):
Performative activation: Sat. 18.10. 15:00-17:00 & Fri. 24.10. 15:00-18:00, open: Tue.-Fri. 14:00-18:00, Sat. & Sun. 14:00-17:00, Sun. 25.10. 11:00-14:00

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

Partner:
A cooperation of the hgb gallery, the performative arts class of the HGB and the 12th Festival Politics in Independent Theatre

The hgb gallery is showing the installation “Graniczanka“ on the everyday life and knowledge of border residents on the southern German-Polish Neisse border. On 18 and 24 October, the installation will be activated by students of the Performative Arts Class through participatory activities.

Areas where the borders of two nations meet are usually regarded as the peripheries of the respective states. The zone where two nation states meet creates a third space in which the border region itself is experienced and utilised differently. Graniczanka can be translated from Polish as "border dweller" and is interested in the unifying aspects that the everyday life of border dwellers can bring with it.
The installation in the HGB gallery shows the formal and informal architecture of the German/Polish Neisse border in the situation of the border controls reintroduced on both sides in the summer of 2025.

In addition, the installation “Graniczanka“ invites visitors to participate in the knowledge of the border residents. Four counselling stations provide information about bilingual educational institutions, body-related services, ecological care work and abortion counselling. How does everyday practice undermine political reality? Where does the political appear in the everyday? The concept of intimate borders examines how re-bordering processes within the Schengen area, (right-wing) extreme political currents and attacks on reproductive rights influence personal everyday practices of love, ecological care and body-related services.
The installation "Graniczanka" is based on the initial research results of the interdisciplinary research group "INTIMATE BORDER(S)", which has been conducting research on the German/Polish Neisse border since autumn 2024. Social scientists are working together with artists in an interdisciplinary setting. Qualitative research methods are combined with artistic practices.

INTIMATE BORDER(S) research group: Ewa Einhorn (artist/University of Gothenburg), Constanze Fischbeck (artist & scenographer/Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe), Elisabeth Militz (geographer/Universität Innsbruck), Carolin Schurr (geographer/University of Bern), Karolina Sobel (artist/Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe / HGB Leipzig), Mirko Winkel (artist & curator, mLAB, University of Bern)

Further info...

Participating artists:
Ismaïl Bahri, Mareike Bernien & Alex Gerbaulet, Gohar Martirosyan, Karolina Uskakovych, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Yuyan Wang, Svitlana Dovbush

Period (opening hours):
Tue.-Fri. 11:00-17:00, Sat. & Sun. 12:00-16:00

Venue:
Ciné / Cinémathèque Leipzig
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 109
04275 Leipzig

Partner:
Shifting Grounds is a collaboration between Forum Neun, Revolutionale - a project of the Friedliche Revolution Foundation and the 12th Festival Politik im Freien Theater. The project is funded by the Federal Agency for Civic Education.


Since the invention of photographic technology, the landscape has been regarded not only as an aesthetic motif, but also as a sensitive archive in which traces of interventions, conflicts and transformations can be inscribed and read. Through the systematic investigation of environmental changes in their images, events could be made visible - a spatial observation that attempts to close the gaps between the images through narratives. The exhibition series "Shifting Grounds" continues this tradition of observing gradual processes and sudden changes through landscapes, but shifts the focus to the medium of film. Which interstices are created here? Which ones close?
Based on these questions, Shifting Grounds relates different artistic perspectives on natural, industrial or socio-political spaces to one another, creating multi-layered, yet always incomplete assemblages that are permeated by tensions: Power relations, the environment and society intertwine in fragile formations that are constantly renegotiated. Landscapes appear as fragile structures - places where the present is condensed and in which speculative futures emerge.

Period (opening hours):
7:30 – 10:30 PM

Venue:
Kulturbar froelich & herrlich
Westflügel Leipzig
Hähnelstraße 27
04177 Leipzig

As part of the 12th Politics in Independent Theatre Festival (16-25 October 2025) in Leipzig, the International Cooperation Department of the City of Leipzig and the Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe Project Group of the Federal Agency for Civic Education (PG MOE) are jointly organising a three-part series of events entitled Local-Decolonial, in which students and alumni of the HGB have also participated.

The series is dedicated to coexistence in post-migrant society in Germany and the decolonisation of discourses on East Central Europe and the now sovereign states of the former Soviet Union. The focus is on the perspectives of artists, experts and activists with a post-Eastern background.

Three events will take place at the Kulturbar froelich & herrlich in the Westflügel Leipzig on 17, 18 and 19 October 2025 from 19:30 to 22:30:

Friday, 17 October 2025:
Belarus! Межы Памежжа - The border of the borderland

The location of Belarus in Europe is the subject of literary, social and political debates. Is the country on the "edge" of Europe, as the Belarusian word "kraj" suggests? In addition to "edge", "kraj" also means "country" or "homeland". Belarus has historically established itself as a kind of buffer zone. This in-between and non-binary characterises the national identity and is reflected in the cultural code - the division into "us" and "the others" only applies here to a limited extent, as Belarus has always been part of a larger political entity throughout its history. The evening will feature the poet and translator Volha Hapeyeva, the performer Igor Shugaleev and the producer Marina Dashuk. Hanna Harp will be the moderator.

>>> register here!

Saturday, 18 October 2025:
Framings, Namings, Solidarities - Bubbles between PostEast, Diaspora and Exile

What does it mean to be "PostOst", to come from Eastern, South-Eastern Europe, the Caucasus or Central Asia and to live and be politically active in Germany today? A new post-migrant reality is emerging between collective horizons of experience, multiple affiliations, migration histories and everyday life in German-speaking countries. Whether young ethnic German repatriates, Jewish contingent refugees or people with roots in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina or other post-socialist countries - their perspectives are diverse and too little visible in the German migration discourse. How do they understand their identity today? What does belonging mean - beyond origin and national categories? And how can a city like Leipzig work more openly, cooperatively and sensitively with these communities? Julia Boxler and Ani Menua in cooperation with X3 Podcast will be guests in Leipzig this evening with a programme and invite you to a discussion and broadcasting session on the topic of PostOst. In addition to a panel discussion on self-image, visibility and the power of collectives, the performance "Garlic Ensemble" will also be part of the programme. In this sensual-political food performance, artist Yasmeen Al-Qaisi invites people to prepare garlic paste (toum/mujdei) together - as a culinary ritual and a gesture of resistance. The garlic becomes a symbol of collective care and a metaphorical weapon against patriarchal and colonial violence. An invitation to join in, think and flavour.

>>> register here!

Sunday, 19 October 2025:
Pluralism in exile - between tension and solidarity

The Russian exile community in Germany is heterogeneous: multi-ethnic, multilingual, not always politically united - but characterised by a common desire for change. Voices that are silenced in today's Russia come together on this evening: artistically, politically, uncompromisingly. The artist Natalia Zaitseva, who has been part of Moscow's feminist theatre scene for years, opens with a performance about memory, loss and the intrinsic life of foreign things - inspired by the collection of a deceased Leipzig woman. Dinara Rasuleva, a poet from Tatarstan, will read from her project "Lostlingual" - an experimental exploration of the gradual loss of one's mother tongue. The book of the same name was published by Rab-Rab Press in 2025. In the discussion, activists, artists and journalists ask: How does pluralism live in exile? What alliances are needed - and what space can a city like Leipzig offer? To conclude: TATAR KYZ:LAR, an electro-poetic duo from Berlin. Their debut album "AŞ", composed by allapopp with lyrics by Dinara Rasuleva, is a musical archive of memories - between childhood experiences, visions of the future and colonial linguistic alienation. The translingual songs in Tatar, English, German, Belarusian and Russian pick up on the artists' migration biographies. An evening with perspectives that are otherwise often ignored - loud, uncomfortable, touching.

>>> register here!

Participating artists:
Haus am Gern (CH) & Günter Peters (Berlin)

Venue:
Riebeckstr. 19 & 21
04317 Leipzig

In 2005, the Swiss artist duo Haus am Gern built the history-free space LIFETIME EUROPE into a Leipzig gazebo. This space is speculative, not because it is fictitious - but because it gives back responsibility. Because there is no history to unburden... This is to be celebrated in 2025!
The way there leads via LÄNDER DES LÄCHELNS, a record journey that the literary historian and sound artist Günter Peters collaged at the end of the 1970s into a multi-layered musical process through four epochs of German history. This acoustic journey and the subsequent walk to the history-free space will take place on two dates in the presence of the artists.

SOIRÉE on Sat. 18 October 2025, 18:00 - 20:00, followed by a walk together to the history-free space (2.5 km)

MATINÉE, Sun, 19 October 2025, 11:00 - 13:00, followed by a walk together to the history-free space (2.5 km)

Admission on a donation basis.

Please book in advance at: lifetime-des-laechelns@mailbox.org

>>> More information about Prof. Dr. Steven Black

In the lecture series "Positions", the professors present their artistic/design practice every Monday from 17:00-19:00. The lectures are open to members of the HGB.

Participating artists:
Concept, development & workshop management: Anna Zett & Hermann Heisig; Guest (music): Patrice Lipeb

Venue:
Teppichladen Wurzen
Markt 9
04808 Wurzen

The starting point for Anna Zett and Hermann Heisig's improvisation format is the GDR and what is left of it between us, what was concealed, what lingers, what no longer makes sense. Anyone interested is invited to take part: with their body, their voice, their own perspective.

"Dede Ah - Post-Socialist Group Improvisation" takes place over three days:
Together with the musician Patrice Lipeb, the artists will open the carpet shop on two afternoons (Mon 20 Oct. & Tue 21 Oct. 5-8pm) for a workshop to try out new ways of listening and speaking with the participants.
>>> register here!

In the public assembly on the third day (22.10. 6-9pm), all guests are welcome to help shape a live musical and dialogue experience and to meet the unknown counterpart with curiosity.

Venue:
HGB ceremony hall
Wächterstraße 11
04107 Leipzig

In times of social change, right-wing tendencies and right-wing conservative actors are gaining influence in the cultural scene. In doing so, they deliberately instrumentalise artistic freedom and the concept of artistic autonomy for their own purposes. Under the guise of freedom, "apolitical", traditional and right-wing approaches are often presented as legitimate and harmless. The art historian Wolfgang Ullrich has analysed this phenomenon in depth in his works „Die Kunst nach dem Ende ihrer Autonomie“ and „Feindbild werden“. He shows how the concept of art autonomy has developed from an originally emancipatory ideal into a defence mechanism against social change and cultural plurality. This paradox manifests itself in right-wing culturalisms that actively reject or delegitimise diversity and plurality as soon as they are perceived as "politically motivated".

In the discussion, the artist Rahel grote Lambers will first give an insight into her artistic practice, which deals with conservative and right-wing tendencies in society. She and Wolfgang Ullrich will then discuss the topic of artistic autonomy and the aesthetic strategies of the New Right - in particular their systematic instrumentalisation of images to promote culturally conservative and right-wing thinking.

Venue:
HGB ceremony hall
Wächterstraße 11
04107 Leipzig

Partner:
The project is co-financed by the European Union and is co-funded by tax revenue on the basis of the budget approved by the Saxon state parliament.

THERE HAS BEEN FIRE.

THERE HAS BEEN POLARISATION.

THERE HAS BEEN INTOLERANCE.

ITS HARDER TO SPEAK TRUTHFULLY NOW

WE CAN'T REMAIN LIKE THIS

WE ALL HOLD A ROLE IN THE WORLD WE ARE BUILDING

COME AND FIND OUT WHAT ROLE YOU'VE BEEN PLAYING

THIS IS AN INTERACTIVE PERFORMANCE

YOUR VOICE WILL CREATE, DESTROY, CALM AND DISRUPT THE SPACE

YOUR OPINIONS
YOUR VIEWS

WILL HAVE A PLACE HERE

AT ANYTIME YOU CAN SHARE AND SPEAK UP

ALL VOICES MAY SPEAK

YOU WILL DETERMINE WHAT WE TALK ABOUT

AND WHAT WE DONT

YOU MAY FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE

The Performance Lecture will be held in English.

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley (b. 1995, London) lives and works between Berlin and London. Working predominantly in animation, sound, performance and video game development, and with a background in DIY print media and activism, the artist's practice focuses on intertwining lived experience with fiction to imaginatively retell and archive the stories of Black Trans people. Danielle utilises interactive technologies to create participatory spaces that challenge traditional narratives and encourage active engagement. Her projects often take the form of immersive video games, where players navigate choices that confront their assumptions and biases, fostering deeper conversations about identity, privilege, and systemic oppression. Through her innovative use of digital media, Danielle not only preserves histories but also envisions inclusive futures where the voices of those that are ignored or erased are central. Her work is both 'archive and insurgency', a catalyst for dialogue, inviting audiences to reflect on their roles within broader societal structures.

https://www.daniellebrathwaiteshirley.com

Organised as part of (Un)Learning Digitalities by the Büro für Digitale Lehre (Eliza Goldox and Juness Beshir).

Participating artists:
Mareike Bernien & Alex Gerbaulet, Dr Jakob Kullik

Venue:
Ciné / Cinémathèque Leipzig
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 109
04275 Leipzig

Partner:
Forum Neun, Revolutionale - a project of the Stiftung Friedliche Revolution & Cinémathèque Leipzig e.V. The exhibition SHIFTING GROUNDS is funded by the Federal Agency for Civic Education as part of the 12th Festival Politik im Freien Theater.

Based on a map of former uranium mining areas in Saxony and Thuringia, the film "Sun Underground" embarks on a dizzying journey through time, under the earth, above the earth and into space. It traces the sedimented narratives that surround the element of uranium in material, geopolitical and metaphorical terms. How can the spectrum of the visible be shifted to bring its invisible radiation into the image, to make it audible or tangible?"

The screening will be followed by a discussion with director Mareike Bernien and political scientist Dr Jakob Kullik (Chemnitz University of Technology) on the film's themes. Moderated by Elza Gubanova & Leon Seidel.
No previous knowledge is required. Admission free.

Participating artists:
Anita Olarescu, Qiuning Zhu, Jana Ehls, Marla Vita, Mika Plutitsky, Cosmo & Kassandra, Simón Jaramillo Vallejo, Tobias Kurpat, Jan Lessmann, Petra Natascha Mehler

Period (opening hours):
Tue-Fri: 11am-5pm, Sat-Sun: 2pm-5pm

Venue:
Kunstverein der Stadt Glauchau art gluchowe e.V.
Schloßplatz 5a
08371 Glauchau

Venue:
HGB, Room 2.34

Partner:
The presentation is in part funded by the Prince Claus Award


Artist, writer, educator, and image theorist Ronnie Close presents excerpts from his recent book Decolonizing Images, which repositions Egypt’s photographic legacy within the context of political struggles, vernacular media, and visual forms of resistance. Drawing from revolutionary iconography and informal visual economies, Close outlines a counter-history of photography that challenges Eurocentric timelines and foregrounds local practices as active contributions to global visual discourse. In ihrer gemeinsamen Präsentation Ronnie Close and Farida Youssef present a theoretical and historical inquiry into photography in Egypt, engaging decolonial perspectives from "Decolonizing Images". While the 2011 uprising placed Egypt center stage in the global debates on image culture, Egypt and photography share a longer, richer history rarely included in the histories of the medium. Their analysis reveals the photograph as a contested site of negotiation shaped by modernity and coloniality. In this framework, the photographic canon is both reconceptualized and critically challenged, situating the image within local histories and epistemologies.

Close has been teaching for 13 years at the American University in Cairo and has previously worked in Ireland and the UK.

Farida Youssef is a researcher and curator based and Cairo. She is interested in the value of spatial theory for artistic inquiries. She was a Merut Fellow at the British Museum where her research sought the inclusion of a local perspective on the Modern Egypt collection by problematizing object provenance and data collection. She received a master's degree from the UCL with a focus on contemporary aesthetic theory.

The presentation will be in english.

Venue:
HGB Bibliothek

One of my favourite books begins with the introduction of an old monk who, at the end of his life, takes it upon himself to write down the "memorable and horrific events" that he experienced as a novice in an abbey in northern Italy. Everyone knows this story; it doesn't end well for anyone. But before that happens, the chronicler tells of an immensely large library and, again and again, of wondrous books and the pictures they contain, "with colours (as) beautiful as painting".

700 years later: In the stacks of the HGB library, I select books whose covers or titles arouse my curiosity and flick through the pages. I see printed Sütterlin script. Strange game instructions. Old-fashioned adverts. And again and again strange pictures: An armour helmet from the 16th century with a human face carved into it to deter enemies. A pair of 19th century toy dolls baked from bread dough (!). The pitiful view of men's clothing from the 17th century that looks as if the wearer is still wearing it. I proceed according to the pure pleasure principle. Only gradually do I realise that I am looking for and finding precisely those pictures whose execution or meaning seem "memorable and horrific" to me at the same time.

For the "Hidden Treasures" exhibition series, publications from the HGB library 's otherwise inaccessible stacks are presented. Often, only a subtly placed colour-coded bookmark or a coloured underlay indicates that it is an exhibition exhibit.

Participating artists:
Karolina Uskakovych

Venue:
Ciné / Cinémathèque Leipzig
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 109
04275 Leipzig

Partner:
Forum Neun, Revolutionale - a project of the Stiftung Friedliche Revolution & Cinémathèque Leipzig e.V. The exhibition SHIFTING GROUNDS is funded by the Federal Agency for Civic Education as part of the 12th Festival Politik im Freien Theater.

"Boots on the Ground, Hands in the Soil" revolves around the remarkable spiritual connection between filmmaker Karolina Uskakovych and her charismatic grandmother Zoya, a proud Ukrainian pensioner who appreciates her anti-capitalist peasant lifestyle. In the winter of 2021, Zoya gives Karolina a packet of her harvested tomato seeds. However, the next growing season coincides with the devastating invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. Undeterred by the circumstances, Zoya and Karolina embark on a unique journey to cultivate their gardens together online. They look after their plants and have important conversations about the importance of this age-old practice in times of war.
In her subsequent lecture, Karolina Uskakovych will provide insights into her artistic-scientific practice, in which she combines personal experiences with ecological issues and research. The focus will be on the role of urban gardening in the context of war - a starting point for an examination of local knowledge systems, ecological resilience and the transformation of post-industrial landscapes.

Uskakovych's lecture will be held in English. It will be followed by an open Q&A session. No prior knowledge is required.

>>> More information about Prof. Christoph Feist

In the lecture series "Positions", the professors present their artistic / design practice every Monday from 17:00-19:00. The lectures are open to members of the HGB.

Venue:
IdeenReich at the University Library Chemnitz,
Straße der Nationen 33 (access via the entrance on Straße der Nationen)

Partner:
The Literarisches Quintett is a joint event organized by the Chair of Modern German and Comparative Literature and the University Library of TU Chemnitz.

Under the motto “Bringing Literature into Conversation—for Readers and Those Who Want to Become One!”, five literature enthusiasts discuss and debate five books in this special edition of the Literarisches Quintett, selected based on the major themes of the exhibition. We aim to talk about books “affectionately and a little bit mean, kindly and perhaps slightly mischievous, but always very clearly and unmistakably” (Reich-Ranicki). United by our love of literature, and perhaps occasionally divided in our opinions, we present the following works:

• Barbara Köhler, Deutsches Roulette. Gedichte 1984–1989; presented by Jule Würfel, artist, Vienna/Leipzig (HGB Leipzig alumna)
  
  
• Stefan Heym, Schwarzenberg; presented by Prof. Dr. Bernadette Malinowski, TU Chemnitz (literary scholar

• Annett Gröschner, Peggy Mädler, Wenke Seemann, Drei ostdeutsche Frauen betrinken sich und gründen den idealen Staat; presented by Prof. Dr. Anja Strobel, TU Chemnitz (psychologist)

• Juli Zeh, Unterleuten; presented by Angela Malz, TU Chemnitz (Director of the University Library Chemnitz)

• Carolin Würfel, Drei Frauen träumten vom Sozialismus (Maxie Wander, Brigitte Reimann, Christa Wolf); presented by Prof. Dr. Dieter Daniels, HGB Leipzig (art history and media theory)

Participating artists:
Ayla Schaub, Psychologist / Fellow at the Chair of Social Psychology, TU Chemnitz

Venue:
Chemnitz Open Space
Brückenstr. 10
09111 Chemnitz

People born in Germany after 1989 belong to the post-reunification generation. Nevertheless, differences in identity and attitudes toward East and West Germany persist today due to place of residence and socialization. This lecture will examine these differences and their causes in detail, while also highlighting the commonalities within the post-reunification generation and exploring ways to strengthen them.
 

Venue:
GRASSI Museum für Angewandte Kunst Leipzig
Johannisplatz 5-11
04103 Leipzig
www.grassimuseum.de

The workshop series “CuratorTalks Leipzig,” launched in 2024, enters its second round.
On Thursday, October 30, at 1:00 PM, HGB students are invited to join a curators’ talk with the Head of Research and curators of the Grassi Museum, offering insights into current curatorial discourses and concepts at the museum. Following the discussion, there will be an exclusive guided tour.

This event is exclusively open to HGB students.
The talk and tour will be held in both German and English.
Registration: ina@hgb-leipzig.de
Meeting point: 12:45 entree Grassi Museum

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

Partner:
In collaboration with Daupará
The project is part of the activities of the hgb gallery

Admission 18:30 - start 19:00

Rutas Etéreas is a travelling audiovisual film festival founded in 2022. It promotes cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue with a special focus on voices from the Global South - especially from Abya Yala and Colombia. By presenting works by young artists, the festival aims to visualise diverse realities, stimulate cultural exchange and build bridges between different communities.
The festival sees itself as a space for encounters and reflection in which cinema becomes a tool for challenging dominant narratives and imagining fairer futures.
For the first screening in Leipzig, Rutas Etéreas 2025, curated by Daupará & Simón Jaramillo Vallejo, presents four impressive short films by indigenous filmmakers from Colombia - including the Wayúu and Wiwa - that deal with topics such as coal mining, memory and territory.
The programme is divided into two blocks, with a short break in between.
Entry is on a donation basis - no one will be excluded due to lack of funds.
All donations received will go directly to the filmmakers involved in Colombia.

Film programme

Block 1

Historias de Shiriwa y Muñí - Amado Villafaña (2016, Dumuna / Spanish, 32:27 min.)

Aquel Cuatro de Noviembre - Marbel Vanegas Jusayu (2024, Wayuunaiki / Spanish, 10:13 min.)

Block 2

Los órganos internos de la Madre Tierra (The Internal Organs of Mother
Earth) - Ana Bravo Pérez (2022, Wayuunaiki / Spanish / Dutch, 22 min.)

Süpüne sa'ain (The Path of Her Soul) - Miguel Iván Ramírez Boscán (2024, Wayuunaiki / Spanish, 28 min.)

Context

About Daupará: Daupará is a platform for exhibition and cultural exchange created with the aim of promoting the recognition and strengthening of indigenous peoples' own forms of communication in Colombia. The "Muestra" is made possible by numerous indigenous collectives and film-makers who are constantly helping to shape and renew it - and thus strengthen communicative and cultural networks and alliances at national and international level.

Special thanks to Eunjung Hwang for the poster.

Participating artists:
Juana Anzellini, Jared Cooper Cobain, Franziska Dathe, Niklas Dietzel, Helene Eisl, Fedele Friede, Leon Friederichs, Sebastian Gögel, Kristina Hajduchova, Max Hechinger, Antonia Heinze, Arina Heinze, Ida Lovis Hüsing, Esther Janott, Miriam Jehle, Maximilian Koch, Mathilda Köhler, Gustav Körnig, Nathalie Lange, Jonas Liesaus, Leon von der Lippe, Felix Lorenz, Robert Schmiedel, Marla Vita, Maria Claudia Wagner, Gemma Wilson, Paul Wilting, Louis Wuttke, as well as Michèle Yves Pauty.

Period (opening hours):
Thu-Sat 11:00-15:00

Venue:
Thaler Projektraum
Spinnereistraße 7
04179 Leipzig

"Difference" brings together the publications produced in recent years by the publishing house "Staffel" for collaborative original graphic art: Portfolios and books in which artistic handwriting and generations mingle and works that could not have been created in an individual studio.For the "Staffel" projects, all invited artists each contribute one of their own drawings, which are then raffled off within the group and given to another person for reworking and translation. In this way, different styles and authorships mix in one picture, positions and media rub up against each other and points of view that would otherwise have remained separate in the studio come together.

This does not mean a rejection of individual handwriting: on the contrary, it is a prerequisite for an artistic encounter in the first place. This kind of encounter is the core concern of "Staffel". The foreign sketch does not materialise on the plate by itself: initially new and unfamiliar, it gradually presents itself, perhaps entering into conversation with the artist's own works in the studio, demanding ever deeper empathy with the foreign position. The peculiarities of the graphic technique are often far removed from the style of the drawing. But what is the core of the design, what must be retained, what can be translated and where does the graphic artist's own style creep in?

The "Difference" exhibition brings together portfolios and books from the last two years. The new portfolio "Treppenhaus" will be presented for the first time, again with both student and established positions from Leipzig, Halle, Berlin, Darmstadt and Salzburg, and the range of different printmaking techniques: Woodcut and linocut, etching, lithography and hand typesetting.

"Treppenhaus" contains prints by Juana Anzellini, Jared Cooper Cobain, Franziska Dathe, Niklas Dietzel, Helene Eisl, Fedele Friede, Leon Friederichs, Sebastian Gögel, Kristina Hajduchova, Max Hechinger, Antonia Heinze, Arina Heinze, Ida Lovis Hüsing, Esther Janott, Miriam Jehle, Maximilian Koch, Mathilda Köhler, Gustav Körnig, Nathalie Lange, Jonas Liesaus, Leon von der Lippe, Felix Lorenz, Robert Schmiedel, Marla Vita, Maria Claudia Wagner, Gemma Wilson, Paul Wilting, Louis Wuttke, as well as a text by Michèle Yves Pauty.

>>> More information about Prof. Heidi Specker

In the lecture series "Positions", the professors present their artistic / design practice every Monday from 17:00-19:00. The lectures are open to members of the HGB.

Venue:
Goethe-Institut Athen
Omirou 14-16
10672 Athen

The public panel discussion brings together experts from all over Europe who will contribute diverse perspectives on contemporary crafts and libraries as places of learning, creation and exchange.

The discussion is dedicated to the question of how we define craft and libraries today. What connects these two areas? From care and preservation to community, knowledge and shared resources, the discussion will open up new approaches and perspectives on crafts and libraries. Moderated by Ivana Borovnjak.

As part of a Europe-wide network meeting organised by the Goethe-Institut Athens, the event will bring librarians together with experts from the fields of art, design, architecture and technology. Together, they will explore how libraries can preserve cultural heritage and at the same time act as places of innovation. The focus will be on how libraries can be activated as spaces for informal learning, social engagement and circular practices.

More information...

Participating artists:
Kristin Hansen, Team Leader, MDRfragt; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Benjamin Höhne, Chair of Comparative European Government Systems, TU Chemnitz; Dr. Thu Nguyen, Director, Jacques Delors Centre, Hertie School Berlin; Moderator: Maj-Britt Krone, Research Associate, Chair of European Integration with a Focus on European Administration, TU Chemnitz

Venue:
Chemnitz Open Space
Brückenstr. 10
09111 Chemnitz

This panel discussion will provide insights from academia, policy advising, public opinion research, and the media on attitudes in East Germany, particularly toward the European Union, in order to identify the causes of polarization, mistrust, and populist mobilization, and to outline possible courses of action for politics and society to counter autocratization.

The event is also part of the series “I (Don’t) Talk With You” at Chemnitz University of Technology

Period (opening hours):
from 18:00

Venue:
PLUS
Weißenfelser Straße 6
04229 Leipzig


Once a month, students from Prof Michael Riedel's painting and graphics class present a selection of their work in the PLUS exhibition space at Weißenfelser Str. 6. Currently on show are works by Felix Mahlknecht, Janne Steinhardt, Max Johnson and Florence Schmid.
There will be pasta with tomato sauce.

Venue:
HGB ceremony hall
Wächterstraße 11
04107 Leipzig

Partner:
The project is co-financed by the European Union and is co-funded by tax revenue on the basis of the budget approved by the Saxon state parliament.

It's one thing to talk about the negative impact of technology, it's however a whole different thing to radically reinvent one's practice, learning habits, pedagogical systems and the infrastructures that support digital production and communication. While art and design works are often lauded for their capacity to illustrate and communicate societal issues, they also struggle, paradoxically, to challenge the problematic systems and tools that enable such capacity. Just like any other field or sector, art, design and culture production does not exist in a distant plane of existence, but is also part of the problem and hostage of big tech and techno-optimist agendas. In this presentation we will first discuss the short but complicated historical relationship between art and ICT, then move on to the limits of thinking in terms of alternatives, and finally introduce permacomputing, a nascent community of practice that is trying to collectively problematise all this mess.

The lecture will be held in English.

Aymeric Mansoux (he/him) has been messing around with computers and networks for far too long. He is professor of applied research at the Willem de Kooning Academy Research Centre, Hogeschool Rotterdam. Recent collaborations include What Remains, an 8-bit Nintendo game about whistleblowing and the manipulation of public opinion in relation to the climate crisis; LURK, a server infrastructure and collective to host discussions around net/computational art, culture, and politics; and the Permacomputing wiki where a growing number of contributors document and discuss alternatives to extractive mainstream computation.

https://monoskop.org/Aymeric_Mansoux

Organised as part of (Un)Learning Digitalities by the Büro für Digitale Lehre (Eliza Goldox and Juness Beshir). 

Participating artists:
Julika Achtzig, Elsa Artmann, Christian Bär, Olga Bläsi, Siegfried Füreder, Fedele Friede, Stefan Lenke, Jonas Liesaus, Ingo Meller, Larissa Mühlrath, Franziska Reinbothe, Nele Hendrikje Sandner, Karoline Schneider, Knut Sennekamp, Ivonne Stark, Philipp Stöckel und Anna Vovan

Period (opening hours):
Thu-Sat: 12:00 - 18:00 PM

Venue:
a&o Kunsthalle
Brandenburger Str. 2
04103 Leipzig

Partner:
Karin and Uwe Hollweg Foundation, a&o-Hostels

On the occasion of his 70th birthday, the a&o Kunsthalle Leipzig is dedicating the exhibition BINGO! to the painter and former HGB professor Ingo Meller. This is the first time his work has been institutionally honoured in Leipzig. This presentation will be complemented by works by selected graduates. A commemorative publication will be published to accompany the exhibition.

Opening Thu, 06.11.2025 with a performance by Elsa Artmann

Period (opening hours):
Fri. + Sat. 13:00-18:00 and by appointment

Venue:
Raw Lemon Gallery
Franz-Flemming-Str. 9
04179 Leipzig


The exhibition "Crack, Fold, Rythm" positions Leon's and Mika's works in a resonant dialogue - not to compare them, but to unfold the multi-layered territories of abstraction in which they each operate. The exhibition invites visitors to experience how two different processes can lead to visual languages that are simultaneously concrete and open, anchored and fleeting.
Although their techniques differ, both artists approach abstraction as a media-reflexive practice. They emphasise the transformative properties of their materials and explore how pigments - whether painted or pressed
- can embody rhythm, temporality and structure. Their shared interest in the processual construction of images and physical engagement with the surface enables a dialogue between spontaneity and control, gesture and grid, intuition and repetition

Venue:
HGB ceremony hall
Wächterstraße 11
04107 Leipzig

The photographers Mahmoud Dabdoub and Raisan Hameed, both former students of the HGB, share a common space of experience. Flight, migration and movement emerge as recurring themes in their photographs. Their works make it clear that the political status lost through flight and migration - as Hannah Arendt describes it in her essay "We Refugees" - also opens up a new one: the right to self-portrayal of one's own memories and thus to one's own visual politics.

The artist talk "Hospitality as a fragment of memory" takes up this perspective and understands hospitality not only as a physical place that opens up to others. Hospitality is also thematised as a place of escape that manifests itself in individuals, collectives and actions. Such places open up spaces in which it is possible to recognise others and create experiential spaces for collective understanding.

The talk is part of the project for diversity development at the HGB.

Participating artists:
Vera Hofmann, artist and co-author of Commoning Art – The Transformative Potentials of Commons in Art

Venue:
Chemnitz Open Space
Brückenstr. 10
09111 Chemnitz

In this interactive lecture, we will explore together the concept of Commoning Art: How can artistic practices, in interaction with socio-ecological movements, become spaces of possibility for the common? We will develop perspectives on art as shared responsibility, as a process of collective imagination, and as an impulse for social transformation.

Participating artists:
Qutiba Alchalabi, Tobias Bertz, Diren Demir, Inga Kruse, Tobias Kurpat, Tina Meschke, Alaina Nugnis, Daisam Othman, Naomi Pedrioli, Barbora Svobodová, Anastasia Vepreva
supervised by Sven Bergelt

Period (opening hours):
Tue.-Sun. & public holidays 10am-6pm, Thurs. 10am-8pm

Venue:
Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum
Deutscher Platz 1
04103 Leipzig

On the occasion of the "Day of Forgetting. And Remembering", the Artistic Action and Research class at the HGB Leipzig is exhibiting in the permanent exhibition of the German Museum of Books and Writing as part of the "Forget it?!" exhibition.
The artistic interventions utilise research-based, site-specific, speculative and power-critical working methods. They scrutinise processes of remembering and forgetting from different perspectives and make references to thematic focal points of the permanent exhibition, such as: De/industrialisation, hegemonic representation of history, forms of censorship or loss and preservation of knowledge.
The title CTRL Z / CTRL Y refers to the keyboard shortcuts "Undo" and "Redo", which in digital space make it possible to undo what has already been deleted from the temporary cache. In the vague zone between these two commands, it is decided what will be retrieved or deleted forever. In this space of thought, the artistic works illuminate ambivalences between forgetting and remembering.
A co-operation of the Class for Artistic Research and Action, HGB Leipzig with the German Museum of Books and Writing in the German National Library and the Leipziger WissensSpuren.

Free admission
The exhibition is barrier-free accessible

Venue:
Chemnitz Open Space
Brückenstr. 10
09111 Chemnitz


Kino in Bewegung (Cinema on the Move) is an initiative founded at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig (HGB) that, together with local collaborators, has been organizing film events at various locations across Saxony since 2019. The project aims to foster a mutual cultural dialogue between different urban and rural spaces through direct encounters: “Even in times of universally available media, we believe in the ‘cinema principle’ as a collective emotional experience that brings people into conversation.”
On this evening, a short film program featuring works by HGB graduates will be shown, followed by a discussion with the filmmakers.

Venue:
Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin
Invalidenstraße 50-51
10557 Berlin

Partner:
In co-operation with ifa - Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations

On the occasion of the 35th anniversary of reunification and one year after the symposium "Der Westen musste nicht im Osten ankommen. The Consequences of the Transformation 1989/1990 for the Art World" at Hamburger Bahnhof - Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Sarah Alberti talks to the four artists Dana Lorenz, Sophia Kesting, David Polzin and Eric Meier about their perspectives on the consequences of reunification and their respective artistic approaches, which are dedicated to the complex topic through documentary photography, sculpture and humour.

Greeting: Gitte Zschoch, Secretary General ifa - Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations

Admission free.

More information...

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.

>>> More information about Prof. Clemens v. Wedemeyer

In the lecture series "Positions", the professors present their artistic / design practice every Monday from 17:00-19:00. The lectures are open to members of the HGB.

Period (opening hours):
permanently open

Venue:
Sternenpassage
MuseumsQuartier
Wien

Partner:
MQ, Museumsquartier


The symbolism attached to the lion has to do with its high position in the food chain. It not only makes it the king of the animals, but also allows it to doze fearlessly - up to twenty hours a day. Its only enemies are rivals of its own species and humans. Greek mythology tells the story of how Heracles cunningly cornered the invulnerable Numean lion and strangled it with his bare hands. This mythological depiction is said to be the origin of the constellation of Leo.

Text excerpt from Ruth Horak, Amnesia, in: Lumen Zine, Issue 15 / Heidi Specker, 2025, p. 3.

Participating artists:
Cecilia Bengolea, Nuotama Bodomo, Nina Davies, Leo Flügler, Suchan Kinoshita, Ariane Müller, Charlotte Posenenske, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Xing Danwen
realised by Ilse Lafer with the team of the hgb gallery

Period (opening hours):
Tue.-Fri. 14:00-18:00 & by appointment

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).

Venue:
University of Leipzig
GWZ Lecture Hall 2010
Beethovenstr. 15
04107 Leipzig


Prof. Dr Marc Rölli as co-organiser (with the Departments of Philosophy and Cultural Studies at Leipzig University)

Participating artists:
Sandra Lehmann (University of Vienna), Gerald Raunig (ZHdK Zurich), Marc Rölli (HGB Leipzig), Ruth Sonderegger (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna), Stephen Zepke (University of Applied Arts Vienna)

Venue:
Depot
Breite Gasse 3
1070 Vienna

Participating artists:
Naima Amrein, Lennert Arnoldt, Anna Bein, Roula Beranek, Adam Elezrah, Albin Flieder, Dana Guzu, Krasna Vukasovic Herrera, Lucie Hess, Maria Holecz, Svenja Jarisch, Miriam Jehle, Jasmina Klein, Magda Klose, Mathilda Köhler, Taissia Kravchenko, Danyila Matsyna, Olena Melnyk Eva Noeske, Nele Pianka, Naomi Pietros, Louisa Pieper, Karlotta Pöschko, Hannes Rühl, Rasool Abu Saab, Johanna Sander, Kolja Kärtner Sainz, Mascha Schultz, Lukas Schwake, Onno Seeger, Arno Selle, Nesren Shalgen, Maja Tobolewska, Leon von der Lippe, Paul Zschocke

Venue:
Kunstverein Lüneburg
Lüner Straße 10a
21335 Lüneburg

Partner:
Lüneburger Landschaftsverband, Sparkassenstiftung Lüneburg, Lüneburg – die Hansestadt


In our class, everything happens at once: developing one's own artistic positions, finding a common language, learning mutual appreciation, negotiating majority consensus or even enduring dissonance. This sum of challenges is the actual subject of our exhibition at the Kunstverein Lüneburg. Alle:s auf einmal is to be understood in the literal sense, as all 35 positions are shown in all their diversity. It can, and perhaps must, become a lot!

>>> More information about Prof. Ivana de Vivanco

In the lecture series "Positions", the professors present their artistic / design practice every Monday from 17:00-19:00. The lectures are open to members of the HGB.

Participating artists:
Prof. Dr. Susanne Rippl, Department of Political Sociology, Institute of Sociology, TU Chemnitz; Dr. Ulf Bohmann, Acting Chair of Sociological Theories, Institute of Sociology, TU Chemnitz; Prof. Dr. Tanja Carstensen, Chair of Sociology with a Focus on Work, Economy, and Organization, Institute of Sociology, TU Chemnitz

Venue:
Sächsische Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Chemnitz
Brückenstraße 10
09111 Chemnitz


That East and West may be united but have not converged has become increasingly apparent in recent years. The event offers insights into current research findings, from Chemnitz and across Germany, and seeks in dialogue with the audience to shed light both on the transformations since 1989 and on the current differences between East and West. Key topics will include: working environments and career biographies, youth and identities, experiences of devaluation, and attitudes toward democracy.

Venue:
Ciné / Cinémathèque Leipzig
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 109
04275 Leipzig

ROU/HRV 2023, Documentary film, 68 min
Director: Vlad Petri
OmeU (Farsi, Romanian with English subtitles)

An intimate and political documentary that weaves together the history of two countries rarely united, and the lives of two women resisting oppressive regimes and challenging patriarchal societies through the power of their desire.
By juxtaposing unusual archive images from two distant political and cultural contexts, the film brings us closer to exciting moments of courage and fear, hope and disappointment that accompany revolutions, and places Eastern Europe and the Middle East at the center of the great events that marked the 20th century. (Farsi and Romanian with English subtitles)

After the screening, there will be a talk with Elahe Haschemi Yekani, Professor of English and American Literature and Culture with a Focus on Postcolonial Studies at the Department of English and American Studies at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

>>> More information

Period (opening hours):
Wed-Fri 8am-4pm and on request

Venue:
Veterinär-Anatomisches Institut Leipzig
An den Tierkliniken 43
04103 Leipzig


The exhibition "Zergliederungskunst" presents paintings created by Felix Ebersbach in 2025. The works are the result of visits to the Veterinary Anatomical Institute. The artistic practice known as "Zergliederungskunst" occupies the line between scientific and artistic exploration of internal anatomy. The exhibition offers the opportunity to gain insights into both the Veterinary Anatomical Institute and Felix Ebersbach's artistic practice.

Venue:
Budde-Haus
Lützowstraße 19
04157 Leipzig

In recent years, art has increasingly come under suspicion of ideology. A neutral position seems impossible. Competition and the formation of camps are on the agenda. For some, arrogance and elitist aloofness prevail, expressed in a cultural hegemony of moral know-it-all left-green slogans. For the others, traditionalist notions of art tied to the European canon are structurally linked to anti-democratic movements and their politics of fear. Thirdly, between them stands an art market that is itself seen as an ideologically driven machine of commercialisation.

How is philosophy involved in these contemporary art relations? Can it perhaps contribute to easing the tensions? What is to be made of the constantly invoked front lines of a 'culture war' that run through the centre of society?

>>> More information

>>> More information about Prof Annette Kisling

In the lecture series "Positions", the professors present their artistic / design practice every Monday from 17:00-19:00. The lectures are open to members of the HGB.

Venue:
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
Eiskellerstr. 1
40213 Düsseldorf
Lecture theatre R.224

Partner:
Christiane Voss


>>> More information and programme

Participating artists:
Giorgio Morandi, Joseph Albers, Anna & Bernhard Blume, Gustave Caillebotte, Tacita Dean, Walter Dexel, Peter Dreher, Lucian Freud, Candida Höfer, On Kawara, Sol Lewitt, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Franziska Reinbothe, Willem de Rooij

Period (opening hours):
Tue.-Mi. & Fri.-Sun. 11:00 AM–6:00 PM, Thu. 11:00 AM–08:00 PM, Mon. closed

Venue:
Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen
Unteres Schloss 1
57072 Siegen

Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964 in Bologna) is known for his still lifes and landscape paintings. Throughout his life, he devoted himself to depicting simple, everyday objects such as bottles, jugs, vases and bowls.

In his paintings and drawings, he constantly varied the arrangement of the objects so that, despite similar arrangements, no two pictures are the same. They are reduced to the essential forms in a concentrated calm. It is precisely in the repetition of the same objects that the minimal differences emerge as major events. It is precisely for this tension between repetition and difference that Morandi has attracted attention as one of the great mavericks of modern painting.

The retrospective exhibition "Giorgio Morandi. Resonances" at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen explores this special position of Morandi in the art of the last 80 years. It shows more than 60 works by the painter from the early 1920s to the 1960s. The presentation is based on the comprehensive group of Morandi works in the Lambrecht-Schadeberg Collection and expands on this with loans from German and European collections. At the same time, the exhibition adopts Morandi's principle and places the works in dialogue with older and more recent works by other artists.

Venue:
SANKT STUDIO Berlin
Mittenwalder Strasse 15
10961 Berlin

At FOTOTREFF #45, the artists Luise Schröder (Berlin), Dana Lorenz & Sophia Kesting (Berlin/Leipzig) will talk together with the author and curator Sonia Voss (Berlin/Paris).

Based on their current publications, they will discuss contemporary photographic perspectives on German-German history(ies) and social transformation processes.

TALK
Luise Schröder, in whose visual practice the handling of history and memory and their significance for the present play an essential role, has been researching the forgotten activities of non-governmental women's and lesbian groups in the GDR in terms of content and aesthetics since 2021/22. Her publication "Stömungen in Bewegung" was published by Fotohof Salzburg in 2025.

Over a period of twelve years, Sophia Kesting and Dana Lorenz have explored the transformation process of the Square of the Peaceful Revolution in Leipzig in documentary-artistic photographs. In their publication entitled Asphalt, Steine, Scherben (Vexer Verlag, 2024), the duo interweave their jointly developed photographic image layer with biographical text fragments.

More information...

>>> More information about Prof. Marion Kliesch

In the lecture series "Positions", the professors present their artistic / design practice every Monday from 17:00-19:00. The lectures are open to members of the HGB.

>>> More information about Prof. Stine Marie Jacobsen

In the lecture series "Positions", the professors present their artistic / design practice every Monday from 17:00-19:00. The lectures are open to members of the HGB.

Venue:
Museum Folkwang
Museumsplatz 1
45128 Essen

At the end of their 12-month scholarship for contemporary photography from the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation, photographers Susanne Keichel and Roxana Rios will present their current projects and talk about their artistic work.

Susanne Keichel has been working on the three-part photo and video work Social Justice over a longer period of time. The trilogy consists of the parts Origin, School and Labour.

In the work complex Echo , Roxana Rios examines the role of photography in the (de)construction of traditional identity categories. Both artists will provide insights into their projects and work processes in a discussion.

Participation free of charge. Without registration.

>>> More information about V.-Prof. Franziska Reinbothe

In the lecture series "Positions", the professors present their artistic / design practice every Monday from 17:00-19:00. The lectures are open to members of the HGB.