The Stadthaus - a house for the issues of the present
Explaining the world
is not what they do, at least not in its entirety. But they shed light on certain aspects, photographers such as Herlinde Koelbl or Nick Brandt, Olaf Otto Becker, Michael Wesely and Lina Kim, Bettina Flitner, Donata Wenders, Jan Banning, Janne Lehtinen, or Jodi Bieber, Anja Niedringhaus, Bryan Adams, Barbara Klemm, or Karin Szekessy. Timm Rautert, and Jim Rakete have exhibited their work here, Peter Bialobrzeski, Debi Cornwall, Loredana Nemes, Johanna-Maria Fritz, as well as Andy Spyra, or Rebecca Sampson, the Magnum photographers Abbas and Martin Parr, or - in one of our first photography exhibitions in 1996 - Joseph Gallus Rittenberg. This list of names is long, but it’s still not complete. Stadthaus director Karla Nieraad offers details about our concept in terms of photography in an interview (in German) with Photo International: "Die Welt erklären".
In addition, we present so-called Outsider Art, a term that labels works of art as different. It’s something we also started in 1996.
"Different from what? Who defines these categories?"
Art critic Claudia Dichter is asking the right question. She follows it up with: "Outsider Art presents a maximum of identity of art and life. It manifests the artists’ private mythologies, their visions, and obsessions. The quality of the work is completely independent from the creator’s mental status." (Claudia Dichter in: Outsider Art. Collection Charlotte Zander. Bönnigheim 1999). We have presented works from the Kreative Werkstatt of Diakonie Stetten, the flying machines and other inventions by Gustav Mesmer, the Icarus of Lautertal, or those of rocket-builder Karl-Hans Janke. We showed the worlds of US-American Daniel Johnston, and of Normann Seibold, who lives in Grafeneck in the Swabian Jura. The renowned Swiss collection Dammann and works by artists from Frankfurt Atelier Goldstein have also been on display.
In addition, we present so-called Outsider Art, a term that labels works of art as different. It’s something we also started in 1996.
Sometimes, our exhibitions are so unique in terms of content or presentation, that they are classified as
none of the above
Like the sensational collection of danses macabre from the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo. Sometimes they commemorate important personalities from Ulm, such as Otl Aicher (1997), the 125. birthday of Albert Einstein (2004), or Albrecht Ludwig Berblinger, also known as the “Tailor of Ulm", the volplane-pioneer (2011 and 2020). The programme is completed by exhibitions about contemporary history. One exhibition that generated a lot of interest was The murderers are among us (2008), about the Ulm task force trial in 1958.
Explore our archive!
A Stadthaus portrait can be found here.
There is also a virtual tour of the Stadthaus here.