urban stage

The seminar urban stage, led by Mischa Kuball at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM), will present a rotating exhibition starting Tuesday, May 27, 2025, in the window display of Lempertz on Cäcilienstraße, Cologne. Each week, one to three artists will take over the space with new artistic interventions.

This project is not merely about showcasing artworks – it is conceived as an ongoing experiment in how art can engage with the city and society. The participating artists, each coming from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, explore and reflect on the complexities of urban space in their work.

Since 2007, urban stage has focused on the structures of the urban environment and the institutional conditions that shape it. In an era where public spaces are increasingly regulated and surveilled, there is a growing urgency to sharpen artistic tools – including performance, photography, sound, and installation – to explore the immediacy of public space as a site of discourse. The display windows at Lempertz, located near Cologne’s Neumarkt, serve as quiet witnesses to the delicate threshold where private space meets public gaze.

The themes addressed by the artists range from representation in public space, surveillance, and disruption to the ways virtual spaces are increasingly permeating the physical world. Political upheavals are also examined – always with a nuanced sensitivity to the different cultural contexts from which they emerge.

The first artist featured in the display is Chaya Shen, presenting her twelve-part work I make the babies it gave me (2025). Crafted from the artist’s own ultrasound images, the bodily forms were translated three times through generative AI models before being re-materialized into the physical realm by the artist.