Eine Stadt als Atelier
22 May to 19 July 2026
Opening: Thursday, 21 May 2026
Participating artists, including: Michael Van den Abeele; Chantal Akerman; Danai Anesiadou; Ethan Assouline; Sammy Baloji; Marianne Berenhaut; Kasper Bosmans; Jef Cornelis; Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys; Laurent Dupont; Jana Euler; Arnaud Eubelen; Béla Feldberg; Mona Filleul; Gust Duchateau; Felix Kindermann; Aglaia Konrad; Céline Mathieu; Hana Miletic; Shaun Motsi; Willem Oorebeek; Jurgen Ots; Marina Pinsky; Sophie Podolski; Emile Rubino; Chéri Samba; Michaela Schweighofer; Beat Streuli; Walter Swennen; Angharad Williams.
The exhibition Eine Stadt als Atelier focuses on Brussels as a multifaceted urban organism. The city combines cosmopolitan diversity, overlapping political influences, and social tensions—a chaotic but inspiring environment for artistic creation. Brussels’ architecture, colonial history, and immigration shape working methods that reflect nonconformity, resistance, and urban reality. The exhibition examines artistic perspectives on urban structures, social textures, and historical traces. With stops in Cologne and Brussels, the project links historical and geographical resonances, highlights cultural interconnections between cities, and expands the interpretation of urban topographies through artistic practices. Brussels thus becomes a model space for reflecting on how cities as living organisms can be continually reinterpreted through art.
Curated by Fabian Flückiger, Curator Brussels and Valérie Knoll, Director Kölnischer Kunstverein.
We are delighted that Eine Stadt als Atelier has been nominated for the *WESTSTERN Prize 2026 in the category Exhibition.
Image: Jana Euler, by its cover, 3, 2017. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Kristien Daem
