New venue with parade by Sasha Waltz & Guests and MEUTE

In September 2025, the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt will open at its temporary location in Frankfurt’s Bockenheim district. The reason for moving the famous art institution is the energy-related renovation of its parent venue, Schirn’s listed postmodern building complex from 1986 at the Römer in Frankfurt's city center, to be carried out through 2028.

The new venue, the eye-catching industrial building of the former Dondorf printing factory from 1890, has been redeveloped and renovated for the use of the Schirn. As previously at the Römer the Schirn will present a program of international exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, always two exhibitions at the same time. On the ground floor of the main building, an attractive open foyer has been newly created with spaces for educational activities and events along with a café and spaces for lingering, which will also integrate the attractive inner patio. The popular MINISCHIRN has been specially adapted for the location. 

On Sunday, September 7, 2025, the Schirn will be celebrating the opening of its new venue with a big parade through the city.  Audiences are invited to a participatory dance performance, “In C – Community,” featuring around 100 involved performers together with the renowned international dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests and the techno marching band MEUTE. The procession with professional dancers and amateur groups will start at the Schirn’s Römer venue and will lead to the former Dondorf printing factory. The opening of the new venue will be celebrated with a performance of “In C – Community” throughout the entire building. 

Sebastian Baden, Director of the Schirn, notes: “The engaging and procedural project ‘In C – Community’ focuses on community and participation, and it is with this aim in mind that we plan to open and develop the Schirn’s new temporary location. We invite our public, art lovers, and our former and future neighbors to celebrate the Schirn’s move with us by participating in a parade through Frankfurt’s city center and then to open the doors of the new Schirn in Bockenheim. It is here that the Schirn will be residing for the next few years. We are developing an innovative program of top-quality exhibitions, educational programs, and events, thereby creating a place for meeting people and for art and creativity addressed to a broad public and people of all ages.” 

The structured improvisation In C was developed in 2021 by the company Sasha Waltz & Guests. Since then, it has been realized in a variety of contexts. The choreography contains fifty-three variable movement figures in an innovative open structure and was intentionally not devised as a finished stage piece. In C is open to adaptions in all dance styles, to influences from various cultural circles, to professionals and amateurs, and to young and old. The two-part performance “In C – Community”—taking the form of a parade and a site-specific performance at the new location—has been created specially for the festive opening of the Schirn in Frankfurt’s Bockenheim district. The procession will be accompanied by artistic interplay with the band MEUTE, consisting of eleven brass and woodwind instruments and percussion. The legendary marching band has developed an interpretation of the musical basis for the choreography, Terry Riley’s pioneering work of the same name, the minimal music composition In C, and will also play other pieces from their own repertoire.   

Martina Weinhart, curator of the project, says: “With In C, the company Sasha Waltz & Guests has created an innovative and experimental cosmos which brings together artists from various genres, as well as people and communities, in changing formations and variations. The work is based on a modular system with variable choreographies, which explore, in an artistic manner, the freedom of the individual and his or her position in the community. In the process, a dynamic and captivating symbiosis between dance, music, and space is formed, in which everyone contributes to the creation of a shared Gesamtkunstwerk: the participating dancers, the musicians, the spectators, and all those accompanying the Schirn’s parade.” 

“Sasha Waltz & Guests: In C – Community” is supported by the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain and the SCHIRN FRIENDS, with additional support by the Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft and the FAZIT-STIFTUNG. 

Director: Sebastian Baden
Curator: Martina Weinhart
Press contact: Johanna Pulz (Head of Press/Public Relations): presse [at] schirn.de / T +49 (0) 69 29 98 82 148
Press material: schirn.de/en/newsroom