Two-part conference
Repräsentationssaal, Klosterstr. 79b, 50931 Cologne
Käte Hamburger Kolleg global dis:connect, Maria-Theresia-Str. 21, 81675 Munich
A two-part conference in Cologne and Munich.
What makes an art space possible outside the institution, and what kinds of community grow from it? The two-part conference “Infrastructures and Forms of Community in Informal Art Spaces in a Global Context,” hosted by the research training group “connecting—excluding: Cultural Dynamics Beyond Globalized Networks” at the University of Cologne and the Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect at LMU Munich, addresses the infrastructure of art spaces and smaller organisations and their impact on the formation of social communities.
The conference discusses the infrastructural prerequisites, whether technical, material, immaterial or economic, for establishing alternative art spaces. From a global perspective, it looks at structures of self-organisation (shared and parallel uses, informal infrastructures), curation (collective, creative and resistant processes), instituting practices (the consolidation of informal infrastructures) and distribution (publishers, independent printing companies).
Non-institutionalised spaces are likely a necessary starting point for political liberation through art. To what extent do they have emancipatory and/or decolonising effects, and how are they networked internationally? What frictions emerge between informal and institutionalised spaces, and between local impact and global perception? How are neighbourhoods activated or commons enabled? What do these communities contribute to a post-migrant society, and where do strategic connections and systemic exclusions take place?
Cologne, November 4, 2026
Institutionalisation as Active Participation in Migrant and Decolonial Contexts
Repräsentationssaal, Klosterstr. 79b, 50931 Cologne
Anna Brus (Cologne): Working within Constraints: Independent Art Spaces, transnational Networks and Knowledge Rehabilitation in Cameroon / Sophie Eisenried (Munich): (An) Institutionalisation of Arts in the periphery / Erden Kosova (Berlin): “Manicured hands will wind coils” / Mona Schieren (Paris/Bremen): On the edge of institution, Centre Saint Charles Paris / Aline Hernández (Utrecht): Hidden Arts: What do we make when no one sees us / Giovanna Esposito Yussif (Helsinki): Where does poetry nest? / Closing discussion chaired by Charlotte Püttmann (Cologne).
Munich, December 1–2, 2026
Infrastructures and forms of community in informal art spaces in a global context
December 1, 5pm: Visit to Habibi Kiosk (Maximilianstraße 26, 80539 Munich) and Kunstraum München (Holzstraße 10, 80469 Munich), hosted by Sophie Eisenried, Lena von Geyso and Angela Stiegler. December 2: Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect, Library, Maria-Theresia-Str. 21, 81675 Munich.
Ana Ereš (Belgrade): Infrastructures of Experimentation: Curatorial Agency and Alternative Institutional Practices in Socialist Yugoslavia / Agnes Stillger (Cologne): Reweaving the Ground: Curating Situated Knowledge and Community in Dakar / Ursula Ströbele (Braunschweig): International Sculpture Symposia as temporary art spaces and infrastructural sites of entanglements. Alina Szapocznikow—A case study / Sabeth Buchmann (Vienna): Between functional sites and artistic infrastructures / Sascia Bailer (Freiburg): Roadmap for an Otherwise: Collectively Building Caring Infrastructures / Joanna Warsza (Hamburg): From the Cosmos to the Commons—from dreaming to the hands-on practices. On art, activism and community dilemmas / Michael Klipphahn-Karge (Leipzig): Gray Spaces. Paracultures in Informal Art Spaces in the Global GDR and their Afterlives.
Concept and organisation: Burcu Dogramaci (Munich) and Nina Möntmann (Cologne)
Registration for Cologne by November 2, 2026: charlotte.puettmann@uni-koeln.de. Registration for Munich by November 25, 2026: here. Places for the art space visit on December 1 are limited; participation will be confirmed by email.
