exhibition archive

Where does the masquerade end and the self begin? With Suzanne Jongmans and Jason Gardner, Costume and masquerade presents two photographic positions that explore the human desire to escape the boundaries of one’s own skin – but from two very different perspectives.

Jason Gardner

For centuries, humans have been using costumes and masquerade to define their own identity or to shape a different version of themselves – especially in what we call the ‘fifth season’, carnival, which starts on 11 November, at least here in Germany. Coincidentally, that is also when the exhibition opens. Jason Gardner’s photographs deliver the evidence, that carnival is a truly global phenomenon. The US-American photographer travelled to Brasil, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Guinea-Bissau, Italy, Macedonia, Austria, Poland, Slowenia, Spain, Trinidad, and to Switzerland and through his home turf, USA, to document the local ways of celebrating carnival. weitere Infos

In 2008 Satoshi Nakamoto published a white paper entitled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” in response to the financial crisis. This text was the birth of a new paradigm, the blockchain.

Based on Nakamoto’s vision, people around the world created a new infrastructure that could be used to transfer assets, information, and much more.


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Every other year, Stadthaus Ulm invites young people to submit work focussing on one democratic value for the photography exhibition ‘Causing Democracy!’

In 2023, the topic is justice. But what does ‘justice’ mean?

Young people from the age of 10 to 25 can submit photos and a short description in three age groups (10 to 14, 15 to 19, and 20-25). We are not looking for ‘pretty pictures’, but images that are a visual representation of the value and that tell a story.

We aim to put the spotlight on the basic values our democracy and our living together depend on, such as ‘freedom’, equality’, ‘peace’, or ‘security’. It is the central political ideas of our modern times that offer guidance for a respectful way of living together. weitere Infos

We don’t know nearly enough about Mongolia around these parts, at least most of us don’t. The young democracy is rich in resources and wedged in between Russia and China. Mongolia is approximately four times the size of Germany, but with just three million people, it is the least populated country on earth.

While almost half of the Mongolians live in the capital Ulaanbaatar, many are nomads, roaming through the endless grasslands. weitere Infos

Researching motives for her work, Birte Horn often explores and photographs disappearing places – such as villages to be demolished in Garzweiler in the soft coal mining area or an abandoned hospital in Venice. She is interested in the colours, shapes, and structures of rooms and items that had been abandoned when people left. These photographs are a first starting point for her paintings and collages. weitere Infos

A clown in armed conflict or a fully veiled woman juggling clubs: When a state of crisis becomes normality, moments of light-heartedness are of a special kind of magic, a dynamic that is well-documented in Johanna-Maria Fritz’ long-term project ‘Like a Bird’.

The scenes captured by the photographer in Afghanistan, Dagestan, the Gaza Strip, in India, Indonesia, Iran or Senegal are surreal and dreamlike. These predominantly Muslim countries are where Fritz found a circus culture that creates important moments of freedom and self-expression in otherwise dire circumstances, and that is the manifestation of a deeply rooted longing for peace and liberty. weitere Infos

To mark the 40th anniversary of the laif photo agency, the exhibition will be showing 40 Positions of Documentary Photography. weitere Infos

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Juni 1940: Der portugiesische Generalkonsul in Bordeaux, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, ein gläubiger Katholik, stellte in dieser dramatischen Zeit unzähligen Flüchtenden, die aus allen Ländern Europas in der südfranzösischen Stadt eintrafen, darunter viele Jüdinnen und Juden, aber auch Angehörige anderer Konfessionen, die auf der Flucht vor den Nazis waren, Visa aus und rettete damit Tausende Leben.

Sie hofften, über Portugal aus Europa fliehen zu können, nachdem die Deutsche Wehrmacht Belgien, die Niederlande und Nordfrankreich besetzt hatte.
Der portugiesische Diktator António de Oliviera Salazar hatte allerdings bereits im November 1939 seinen Diplomaten verboten, die dafür benötigten Visa auszustellen. De Sousa Mendes geriet in ein existentielles Dilemma. Er musste zwischen seinen Grundwerten und den Befehlen Salazars entscheiden. Nach dreitägigem Gewissenskampf entschied er sich, Salazar nicht zu gehorchen. Zwischen dem 17. und 23. Juni 1940 stellte er die Visa aus. weitere Infos

Peter Bialobrzeski, born in 1961, is one of the most successful contemporary German photographers. In 2012, he was honoured with the Dr. Erich Salomon-Award by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie and in 2003 and 2010 with the renowned award for photojournalism, the WorldPressPhoto Award. weitere Infos

Since 2014, this terrace has been the home of bee colonies. Bees are extremely important for our ecosystem. With our urban beekeeping project, we want to draw attention to bees.
Our planters have been redesigned and replanted in 2021, providing food for our bees. They also provide information about our local flora, garden escapees and neophytes. Further themes in the planters include plants that used for medical purposes and ‘ephemeral art’.

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Kudzu is a climbing plant, originally found in Asian regions. In 1876 it appeared on the American continent, as a guest of the first The Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia.

Mild winters and the lack of predators enabled the invasive plant to spread uncontrollably. Today, the plant poses an enormous problem. It takes over whole landscapes, overgrows forests and buildings, and destroys entire estates. It continuously must be cut back from power lines and railroad tracks. weitere Infos

Internally renowned photo artist Ursula Kaufmann, born 1946 in Essen, is in high demand for big festivals and all types of theatrical productions, but her heart beats for dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch and her ensemble. weitere Infos

The ‘young’ cultural heritage site Stadthaus cordially invites you all, families, technology- and architecture afficionados, tourists, regulars, and those who happen to wander in by accident, to (re-) discover the building through free guided tours! weitere Infos

The work Greytree and Heavensea by Loredana Nemes was created over a period of two and a half years on the island of Rügen, a place the artist had chosen as a shelter and retreat. She began photographing the beech trees in the Jasmund National Park and juxtaposes these shots with views of the expanse of the sea. To date she has visited a dozen times in every season. The resulting series will be published in spring 2022 and exhibited for the first time at the Stadthaus Ulm.

Her frequent visits allowed Nemes to become familiar with the beech forest. Always the same paths, always the same beech trees, always the same roots over which she stumbles. And yet many things are new each time: the rapidly changing light by the sea, the winds, the clouds. Nemes' medium format camera translates the elements into subtle nuances of grey. weitere Infos

Far from their homes and families, over 140,000 Indonesian maids work in Hong Kong as second-class migrants under precarious conditions. Long workdays, poor pay, disrespect, and arbitrariness are part of the domestic workers' daily lives. Living in cramped quarters with their employers for years, these women often have no privacy.

The only time the domestic workers can leave this exploitative environment is on their one day off per week. Every Sunday, thousands of Indonesian women flock to the public spaces of Hong Kong to meet with fellow maids in parks or other places. They use those few hours to satisfy their emotional needs for familiarity and closeness. As an expression of a shared cultural identity, Indonesian food and music are important parts of the weekly gatherings. weitere Infos

Designer Julia Löffler noticed baffling similarities in the way people posed next to ‘exotic’ plants in the colonial era photographs and how people pose for the photos they post on social media today.
Unknown, rare, from a European point of view "exotic" plants were collected then as now as luxury goods and status symbols. Julia Löffler collected old and new photographs that correspond with each other and called the series "Exotic Plant Hunters", which today comprises around 40 pairs of pictures.
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Melanie Einzig's personal approach to street photography and her love for – often absurd – details and the subjects of her work create a very subjective image of a city everybody thinks they know: New York. Humour is the unifying element in Melanie Einzig's photography; sometimes it's subtle, sometimes on the nose, but always loyal to the subject. The abundance of empathy the photographer has for those portrayed is almost tangible in every single shot.

Born in Los Angeles in 1967, Melanie Einzig grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis. She had an early interest in art and poetry and moved to New York in 1990, to become an artist.
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With ‘Welcome to Camp America: Inside Guantánamo Bay’, Stadthaus Ulm presents photographs exploring one of the most infamous locations in recent American history: the US naval base in Guantánamo Bay on Cuba that gained international attention in 2002, when the military established a prison camp as part of their ‘war on terror’ campaign. Images of orange-clad prisoners, holding out in chain-link cages in the blistering sun were seen around the world and, along with reports of torture, caused international criticism and discussions about the state of human rights on location. Despite the broad media coverage, interest for the conditions of the now 40 remaining prisoners quickly faded. weitere Infos

The inexplicable transformation from caterpillar to butterfly impresses even children. Other species as well change fundamentally in the course of their life and some even change their life-giving element, such as the dragonfly. weitere Infos

Munich artist Rudi Bodmeier favourite motifs are Mannequins and pin-up-girls. Sometimes they are flamboyant on high-heels, or self-confident, or provocative, or humble. However, Rudi Bodmeier is not so much interested in the woman as an individual, he rather isolates elements of the stereotypical female and combines them with limbs from the animal realm or with objects, resulting in exaggerated composite beings. Skinny advertising models are augmented with voluptuous curves, their heads are replaced with those of horses, goats, or insects, partly illustration, partly collage. The hybrid beings often present an irritating and sometimes disturbing destructive image of femininity. And Bodmeier names his creations: Countess of Easy Chair meets police officer Anna Ant; Magda Bouquet meets Martha Bulldog and Margarethe Donkey. weitere Infos

The photographer, filmmaker, and author Désirée von Trotha (1961-2021) has travelled the Sahara-Sahel regions of Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, and for around six month every year since 1991.

Her photographs, books, and reports have become a chronicle of the world of the Saharan nomads, whose homeland has seen such dramatic upheavals since 2012: terrorist organizations, armed groups, militias, and criminal networks control extensive areas, conflicts are fuelled by regional and international interests in resources and security issues. weitere Infos

To explain misfortune – such as a relative's death or a separation – or illness, epidemics, draughts, dying livestock, or similar catastrophic events, thousands of women are accused of witchcraft to this day. It often amounts to a death sentence.

In Ghana, some of the accused manage to find refuge in so-called ‘witch camps’. However, they are barely able to lead a normal life again.

According to the United Nations, the issue of violence against alleged witches does not only exist in Ghana, but in 36 other countries. Most victims are elderly women, but men and children are also accused of witchcraft. They are punished with beating and torture, which often results in the victims’ death.
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The MIKROMYSTERIUM, the ‘micro mystery’, is a wonderous universe where microorganisms dwell, constantly moving viruses and bacteria, larger than life, crocheted and textile objects of art.
The beauty of these microscopic life-forms is as contagious as the fear of infection. A voyeuristic view of Covid, influenza, rubella, HPV, pest, swine flu, cholera, malaria, measles, Ebola, diphtheria, typhus, mumps, hepatitis, meningitis, rabies, norovirus, tetanus, chicken pox, Spanish flu, syphilis, HIV, gonorrhoea and tuberculosis – from a safe distance.
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The photographer Klaus Pichler is a man of rationality. This is how the newspaper "Süddeutsche Zeitung" described him in May 2017 after publishing his eighth book: "This will change your life FOREVER".
What's the matter? Two of his friends have rushed into the esoteric scene due to severe blows of fate. The term "esotericism" is often used for ideological movements which, for example - according to the Internet - aim to "draw on occult, anthroposophical, metaphysical teachings and practices towards self-knowledge and self-realization of people".

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While she worked as a newspaper photographer for the FAZ, there has been almost no historic event where she did not take a famous picture: Barbara Klemm.
It is one of her special talents to capture the precise moment of historic significance. Another is her seemingly indefinite patience and perseverance. This combination is the foundation of her success. weitere Infos

America, ca. 1900. Technological progress sets foot on the virgin soil of Clear Creek Valley, railroad tracks are being laid. In the vast west, a little town called Ulm suddenly appears, seemingly out of thin air. It was the boom era of Sheridan County; people came in droves only to leave again – and they are still gone today. 2.500 inhabitants remained, four per square kilometre. Today, only the wind lives in the small city, the human inhabitants all gone since the sixties. Laurie Schwartz knew of Ulm, the one in Swabia, where she participated in the Festival neue Musik at the Stadthaus in 2018.
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He became known as the ‘bread painter’. But Thomas Kahl, who died much too young in 2017, was so much more than that. The exhibition we opened in early March 2020 in cooperation with Galerie Tobias Schrade made that very obvious. After just one week however, corona forced us to close it down again. Project manager Raimund Kast took to Facebook to present many of Kahl’s works, but a virtual tour can not adequately replace the real-life encounter with art. Which is why the Stadthaus has rearranged its exhibition schedule for the fall of 2020 and will present the show again from autum 2020 - planed 1 December - until the beginning of 2021. weitere Infos

Attempting to fly across the river Danube on 31 May 1811, Albrecht Ludwig Berblinger crashes his hang-glider, much to the amusement of his audience, including the duke and princes. Today, we know that he was a visionary.

The exhibition celebrating the 250th birthday of Albrecht Ludwig Berblinger presents a plethora of ideas along the thin line between science and imagination. It touches upon taking flight in a shoe as well as teleportation. It also proves that the first human to drill a hole straight down from the minster square will come back out in the Flowerpot Bay of Pitt Island. This tunnel will be 12,742 kilometres and flying from one end to the other will take 38 minutes.

Numerous artist and scientist from all around the world have made their contribution to this exhibition.

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Finally – it is that time of the year! Our bees have returned to the Stadthaus – for the seventh time! This year they have moved into a new property that has been designed to tie in with the exhibition ‘Taking Flight to a World Beyond’.

Taking flight from their summer residence on the Kabinett terrace (level 2), our 200.000 colleagues will spread out to collect pollen and nectar from the trees and ornamental plants in public parks and private gardens or balconies in and around the centres of Ulm and Neu-Ulm. Their area of activity has a diameter of six kilometres. The city is a great dwelling place for our Stadthaus bees, in contrast to more rural areas which are often characterised by monocropping. weitere Infos

Heike Sauer was born as the daughter of her parents and grew up in the vast expanse of Swabia. After receiving the university-entrance diploma, Sauer enrolled in the Iwanson International School of Contemporary Dance in Munich to become a dancer and dance pedagogue. When a busted knee ruined her career, she abandoned the silent years of dancing and started talking, dressed in pink and called herself Marlies Blume. And she talked the way she learned it, in Swabian. This has been going on for 20 years now. She collected numerous awards with Ariane Müller, performed with Martin Wangler (aka Fidelius Waldvogel) and last but not least with Hanna Münch as 'Münch & Sauer'. weitere Infos

One photographer, two extraordinary women and icons of photography

The great celebrities in film, show, and music business – American photographer Douglas Kirkland (*1934) had most of them in front of his camera: Sting, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Brigitte Bardot, Marlene Dietrich, Romy Schneider, to name a few, but also Marilyn Monroe and Coco Chanel. weitere Infos

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Ulm on 17 December 1944.

On the third Advent Sunday between 7.23 and 7.50 p.m., a three-waved air strike of British Bombers destroyed most of the historic centre, killing 700 men, women and children.
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Artist's Talk with FLATZ
Wednesday, 20 November 2019, 7:30 pm
Tickets: 5 € weitere Infos

The stadthaus takes a curious look at various forms of female headgear in Islam, Christianity and Judaism. All three religions - each in its own way - share their idea of female modesty, that correlates with covering physical charms. The exhibition consists of three corresponding parts: Cherchez la femme, a takeover from the Jewish Museum Berlin, In My View, a stadthaus project with class 10a and the Foto-AG of the Hans und Sophie Scholl-Gymnasium, as well as En attendant l'Eternité, a photo series by Laurence von der Weid. weitere Infos

Boxing in Cuba is much more than a sport, it is part of Cuban culture, not unlike soccer in Germany. However, the importance of boxing for young people' in Cuba is of a much more vital quality. Boxing is a possibility to fight for something beyond titles and awards, it is the possibility to fight for a better life. weitere Infos

The question of the first colour — not colourised! — postcards of Ulm were created after the turn of the century opens up a forgotten chapter of the history of photography in our country. The search for an answer led to the discovery of a world-renowned court photographer from Stuttgart, Hans Hildenbrand (1870 – 1957). weitere Infos

Richard Meier's buildings are characterised by the interplay of the outside and the inside, the rooms flooded with natural light. It seems to be appropriate to feature light itself in an exhibition celebrating the Stadthaus' 25th anniversary. We are happy to be able to present works by artists of international renown, works that present light as an event that be experienced sensuously. The two-part exhibition will feature photographs and light objects as well as regular dance and sound performances! weitere Infos

The Abduction of 276 young girls from Chibok in northwest Nigeria by the militant Islamist sect Boko Haram sparked global outrage in 2014. The campaign #BringBackOurGirls was started. Still the Boko Haram story continues to unfold; thousands of girls are estimated to be in captivity to this day. weitere Infos

Nine photographers and one non-photographer, all of which have a special connection to the Stadthaus, to Ulm, Neu-Ulm and the surrounding regions, were invited to create works on the topic of 'movement'. Artistic freedom was guaranteed. An exciting process for all involved. weitere Infos

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Atelier Goldstein, an institution of Lebenshilfe Frankfurt am Main e.V. (an association dedicated to supporting people with learning disabilities), is named after the district where it was founded in 2001. Today, it is regarded as one of the most renowned studios of outsider art. Atelier Goldstein is dedicated to demonstrate that artist with disabilities do have the ability to create works of significance. weitere Infos

The constructed urban environment never was a biotope exclusively for humans. Synanthropes have been around us since the beginning. Meanwhile, mostly safe from hunters, wild boars are ploughing through gardens, foxes burrow under sandpits and deer are occupying the streets. Wildlife can also be spotted in the city of Ulm – just think of the beavers in the parks of Friedrichsau! weitere Infos

Works 1980 - 2016

1 July to 17 September, 2017
Herlinde Koelbl is one of the prominent German photographers. She is known especially for her long-term projects, in which she often challenges social taboos by revealing social backgrounds.
Koelbl looked inside the "German sitting room" (1980). A photographic social study originated amidst German interior, whether stylish or pretentious, for which she photographed people from all social classes in their living rooms, all over the country - from a worker through an artist to an industrialist. Starting in 1991, she accompanied Angela Merkel, Joschka Fischer, Gerhard Schröder and others for many years on "Traces of Power - The transformation of a person through public office" or, most recently, has been confronted with the situation of the refugees in Europe ("Refugees - A Challenge for Europe", 2016). In addition, Koelbl makes documentary films and conducts interviews, e.g. for the ZEIT Magazin. weitere Infos

Bruce Bickford, born in Seattle in 1947, is one of those artists who deserve a big audience but are almost exclusively recognized in their very specific niche. Bickford is almost lucky, because he is featured in not one but two niches: that of Frank Zappa aficionados and that of clay animation connoisseurs. weitere Infos

North Korea, currently the most inaccessible country, is sealing itself off. If photo journalists manage to gain access to the country at all, their work is meticulously supervised and manipulated. While secret and supposedly secret snapshots are flooding the market, they always depict the same views. It is a photographers task, however, to look for the truth behind the facade, and to avoid reducing the people of North Korea to silly marionettes and stereotypes. The exhibition with works by the three extraordinary photographers Nathalie Daoust, Reinhard Krause and Julia Leeb is expanding the horizons of our Western world into a system that's alien to us. weitere Infos

The Amish are an Anabaptist congregation with roots in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. Most Amish left their homes in Europe in 19th century to avoid religious persecution. Today, their descendants in the USA and in Canada are leading a simple life, strictly following what they call “Ordnung”, a set of specific rules that can vary from community to community. Technological innovations will only be permitted if their use doesn't have a negative influence on the community. Smartphones? Disrupt community life and are therefore not permitted. Bicycles? Are permitted, except in Lancaster County. Photographing? Is not permitted, just like posing for photos, because it is regarded as self-presentation. What is permitted in many regions however, is to not explicitly prohibit photographing. weitere Infos

They are spectacular and breathtaking, and they are mysterious, sad and beautiful, all at the same time. The British-born Nick Brandt has been photographing the (East) African wildlife since 2000. His large format black and white photographs by far exceed what could be regarded as documental wildlife photography, they capture both the animals' magnificence and the threats they are facing. weitere Infos

What happens when a man dresses as a woman and what happens when a woman dresses as a man? Cross Dressing, wearing clothing attributed to the opposite gender, is an ancient social phenomenon which is associated with varying meanings and rituals in different cultures and eras. Cross Dressing can be a costume – including in theatre and film – but it can also be an expression of gender identity. It can be a political statement as well as a disguise to escape adverse conditions. Furthermore, Cross Dressing exists as a cultural or ritualistic procedure. weitere Infos

In 1986 the city of Ulm and the jury it appointed commissioned Richard Meier (*1934), one of the leading architects for museums at the turn of the 21st century, to build the Stadthaus Ulm. The building was completed 1993 and it is a manifestation of the design principles that were developed from the modern architecture of the 20th century and which Richard Meier consistently followed and perfected since the late 1960ies. It also documents a very specific response to the place where it was was built: The minster square had often been a matter of discussion ever since its clearing and the completion of the minster spire in 1890, but none of the drafts ever came close to Meier's concept. weitere Infos

The Iranian-French photographer Abbas (*1944) took religion as his main concern. He shot the Iranian Revolution, documented Islam as a gobal phenomenon, including militant Islamism. To be able to document the everyday life of Muslims, he travelled from Xinjiang to Morocco, from London to Timbuktu, New York and Mecca. He photographed their rituals, their spirituality, and also their growing radicalisation. He deals with the spiritual power and the political significance of Christianity, as well as with Judaism. He visits animistic cultures, he explores the world of Buddhism and – in more recent times - the fourth big world religion, Hinduism. weitere Infos

Randy G. Taylor has been a photographer for more than 40 years. In 1978, Taylor was just 22 years old, he worked for Associated Press in Paris, France, where he managed to capture the shoot-out at the Iraqi Embassy – which got him considered for the Pulitzer Prize. His work has since been bought by numerous companies and printed by a long array of prestigious publications. weitere Infos

“collecting madness”. The title of the exhibition is intentionally ambiguous. It refers to art created by people who experienced psychiatric treatment as well as to the process of collecting itself. The collection by Swiss couple Gerhard and Karin Dammann is one of the most interesting of its kind and a selection is now on show at the Stadthaus. weitere Infos

Saalfoyer, level 1
Pigeons in flight see the earth like we might see it in our dreams, when we're dreaming we can fly. In the beginning of the 20th century, pharmacist Julius Neubronner (1852 - 1932) from Kronberg was experimenting with miniature cameras attached to homing pigeons. weitere Infos

This was how publisher Wilhelm Goldmann reacted to the cover drafts submitted by illustrator Eyke Volkmer for the science-fiction series of the publishing house. The designs were abstract, airbrushed in vivid colours. If Goldmann knew what it looked like in outer space, he could change the designs accordingly, is what Volkmer replied over 50 years ago. “No, no,” the publisher said in return, “I like what you are doing, it's all fine, we'll continue.” weitere Infos

Ever since the 1990ies, the western art world developed an increasing interest in photographers from South Africa and also from the West African countries Senegal and Mali. Dakar and Bamako in particular are home to a thriving photographers' community that developed along the lines of street, press and studio photography, with their very own pictorial traditions and aesthetics. weitere Infos