We were not prepared for this: war in Europe, the Western alliance falling apart, far-right parties winning elections. It may take a long time until times improve again. What can we do? We must stay engaged—but we also need ideas for how to endure these hard years. Mirjam Zadoff offers a number of suggestions: remain humane, stand in solidarity with those who are more vulnerable, forge unusual alliances, open our doors, and finally read Hannah Arendt. There are countless ways to stay alert and still lead a good life. Let’s begin.

Registration requested by Friday, 9 January 2026: info@weserburg.de

About the author:
Mirjam Zadoff (*1974) studied history and Jewish studies in Vienna and Munich. From 2014 to 2019 she was Professor of Jewish Studies and History at Indiana University Bloomington; since 2018 she has been director of the NS Documentation Center Munich. As a visiting professor, she has taught, among other places, in Zurich, Berkeley, and Berlin. She is an honorary professor at the Technical University of Munich and an adjunct professor at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich. Hanser published Der rote Hiob. Das Leben des Werner Scholem (2014), which received the Fraenkel Prize for Contemporary History, and Gewalt und Gedächtnis. Globale Erinnerung im 21. Jahrhundert (2023). Mirjam Zadoff lives in Munich.

Part of the exhibition Cold as Ice. Coldness in Art and Society
In cooperation with the Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen

Fig.: Mirjam Zadoff, 2023 © NS-Dokumentationszentrum München, photo: Connolly Weber Photography

This edition of Community Art Night invites everyone to try out transfer techniques to warm up: making your own stickers, working with acrylic plates in transfer printing, drawing each other, and collage.

From 5:15–5:45 pm, an art talk will also take place in the exhibition Cold as Ice. Coldness in Art and Society with Nadezhda Milanova, Commissioner for Migration and Integration for the State of Bremen; Nadine Golly, Executive Director of the Bewegungsstiftung; and Lena Prötzel, Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst.

About Community Art Night:
During the exhibition Cold as Ice. Coldness in Art and Society, the Project space at the Weserburg opens its doors once a month on Thursday evenings from 5–8:30 pm. Through collective making and encounters, the event offers a warm counterpoint to coldness—open to all, beyond labels, disciplines, or languages.

The program is diverse: printing workshops, painting activities, Silent Reading & Sketching events, or a community choir. The series concludes in March with a clothes swap pop-up and DJ set.

From 5–6 pm visitors can also explore the exhibition Cold as Ice through short guided tours and conversations with members of the local community and the museum team.

Made possible by Sparkasse Bremen and funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.

Poems provide an excellent starting point for engaging with texts through illustration. Vivid language, allusions, and atmospheric condensation challenge us to develop our own perspectives on the material: to translate mental content into visual form, to clarify what already exists, to interpret, to contrast, or to shade with irony.

In addition, the course will focus in particular on exploring the interplay between self-written lyrical texts and participants’ own illustrations. Sometimes the illustration follows the lyrical text, sometimes the text follows the illustration, and sometimes both are developed simultaneously in conceptual preliminary considerations.

With its exhibitions and the Centre for Artists’ Publications, the Weserburg offers an inspiring environment and can provide many occasions for writing and illustration exercises.

Course information and registration: info@ankebaer.de

Photo: Anke Bär

In her talk, journalist Andrea Röpke provides insight into why right-wing youth groups are growing in Germany—especially in Bremen and Lower Saxony. What are the social and political causes? The discussion afterward will also address what responses civil society can find. The talk and discussion are part of the program for January 27—Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism in the State of Bremen.

About the participant:
Andrea Röpke is a political scientist and freelance journalist specializing in far-right extremism. Her in-depth investigative research has been published, among others, by WDR, taz, and Süddeutsche Zeitung online. She has received numerous awards, including the Otto Brenner Prize, the Lighthouse Award of Netzwerk Recherche, the Paul Spiegel Prize of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and honors as Reporter of the Year and Journalist of the Year.

Exclusion clause: The organizers reserve the right to exercise their right of admission and to deny access to the event or exclude individuals who are affiliated with organizations hostile to democracy or who have previously made, or continue to make, statements that are discriminatory or dehumanizing.

In cooperation with attac Bremen

Fig.: Library of the Weserburg, Photo: Patrick Drescher

Activity, relaxation, and artistic impulses: a 75-minute yoga class for all interested participants with Gabriele Kroll (certified yoga instructor) at the Hans Otte. Klanghaus. The session concludes with a shared moment of relaxation and refreshments in the Library. Before and after the class, participants are welcome to explore the exhibition and the museum.

Please bring comfortable clothing and a yoga mat. If you do not have your own mat, please indicate this when registering.

Fig.: Yoga at the Hans Otte. Klanghaus, photo: Gabriele Kroll

In this edition of Community Art Night, everyone is invited to sing together in an open choir with the team from brynja – Raum für Psyche und Gesundheit. Those who wish are welcome to stay afterward for getting to know one another and informal conversation.

At the same time, the exhibition Cold as Ice. Coldness in Art and Society will be open until 6 pm, with 10-minute dialogical tours offered.

A cooperation between Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst and brynja e.V. – Raum für Psyche und Gesundheit in Bremen

About Community Art Night:
During the exhibition Cold as Ice. Coldness in Art and Society, the Project space at the Weserburg opens once a month on Thursdays from 5–8:30 pm to warm up together. Through collective making and encounters, it offers a counterpoint to coldness—open to all and beyond labels, disciplines, or languages.
The program is diverse: printmaking workshops, painting activities, Silent Reading & Sketching events, or a community choir. The series concludes in March with a clothes swap pop-up and a DJ set.
From 5–6 pm there is also the opportunity to visit Cold as Ice. In short tours and conversations with members of the local community and the museum, selected works are introduced.

Made possible by Die Sparkasse Bremen and funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.

Photo: brynja e.V. Raum für Psyche und Gesundheit

Short guided tours (instead of an introductory speech):
7:15 pm with Janneke de Vries
8:15 pm with Ingo Clauß

Followed by a shared celebration with soup and drinks in the Library.

The collection exhibition The Way We Are appears in a new light: new works, new collections, new thematic areas. Alongside this, familiar works with modified emphases, established positions as moments of recognition, hands-on stations for visitors, and a stronger focus on positions from the 1960s to the 1980s as a historical backbone. The guiding question: Who are we—and who could we be?

New to the exhibition are works by around 40 artists: Saâdane Afif, John M. Armleder, Rebekka Benzenberg, Viktoria Binschtok, Karla Black, Christian Boltanski, André Cadere, Jesse Darling, Cao Fei, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Ceal Floyer, Andrea Fraser, Ryan Gander, Kyriaki Goni, Donald Judd, Johanna Karlsson, Annette Kelm, Sonia Khurana, Jürgen Klauke, Fabian Knecht, Jürgen Krause, Till Krause, Wolfe von Lenkiewicz, Richard Long, Robert Longo, Urs Lüthi, Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Marge Monko, Andreas Mühe, Zanele Muholi, Kenneth Noland, Susan Philipsz, Paloma Proudfoot, Peter Roehr, Bunny Rogers, Kay Rosen, Ulrike Rosenbach, Emma Sarpaniemi, Lerato Shadi, Luc Tuymans, Anna Vogel, Wim Wenders

Fig.: Marge Monko, I Don’t Eat Flowers, 2009, Art’Us Collectors’ Collective © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026

What connects stars, galaxies, and sounding tones—and how can the infinite be made audible?

Astronomer Antonín Bečvář, founder of the Skalnaté Pleso Observatory in the High Tatras, created monumental star atlases in the 1950s and 1960s that inspired generations of researchers—and artists alike. American composer John Cage used Bečvář’s maps as the basis for his piano works Etudes Australes (1974–75) and Etudes Boreales (1978): music that quite literally reaches for the stars.

During the lecture-concert, excerpts from these fascinating works will be performed live, in dialogue with breathtaking celestial images from the atlases Atlas Borealis and Atlas Australis.

Outer space itself will also become audible: NASA has translated data from the Hubble Space Telescope into sound—so-called sonifications. These sounds from space will be heard during the concert and set in relation to John Cage’s compositional approach.

Matti Wiemers, deputy director of the Bremen Olbers Planetarium, will guide the audience through the mysteries of the night sky, speaking about star clusters, supernovae, and the fascination of the infinite—opening up new perspectives on listening and seeing. At the piano, works will be performed that make the night sky, light and darkness, distance and proximity musically tangible, by Olivier Messiaen, Tōru Takemitsu, Béla Bartók, and George Crumb.

An evening between art and science—for everyone curious about the sound of the sky.

About the participants:
Matti Wiemers completed his studies at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, including a Master’s degree in historical musicology. Alongside his work as a subject coordinator for educational sciences at the State Institute for Schools Bremen, he has been deputy director of the Bremen Olbers Planetarium since 2015 and teaches music, geography, and astronomy at the Altes Gymnasium.

Claudia Janet Birkholz studied piano in Bremen, where she teaches piano and new music at the University of the Arts. She has performed at numerous festivals and with ensembles. Since 2012 she has chaired realtime – forum neue musik and serves as artistic director of the realtime festival in Bremen. She initiated the format Let’s Talk Music, inviting guests from music and science since 2015.

A cooperation between realtime – forum neue musik e.V. and Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst
With the kind support of Die Sparkasse Bremen

Fig.: Claudia Janet Birkholz, photo: Andreas Caspari

About the participants:
Bani Abidi (*1971) studied fine arts at the National College of Arts in Lahore and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She lives and works in Berlin and Karachi. Abidi’s practice focuses on bureaucratic infrastructures, historical events, and nationalism. Working primarily with video and photography, she comments on politics and culture, often through humorous and absurd vignettes. On view in the exhibition: The Song, 2022, video (22:24 min.).

Asal Dardan (*1978) studied cultural studies in Hildesheim and Middle Eastern studies in Lund. She lives and works in Germany and Sweden. Dardan received the Caroline Schlegel Essay Prize. In 2021 she published her essay collection Betrachtungen einer Barbarin, nominated for the German Nonfiction Prize, followed in 2025 by Traumaland. Eine Spurensuche in deutscher Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. In 2023 she delivered the first Erika Mann Lecture at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich.

Part of the exhibition Cold as Ice. Coldness in Art and Society.
In cooperation with globale° e.V.

Fig.: Exhibition view Cold as Ice: Bani Abidi, The Song, 2022, photo: Tobias Hübel

For the grand finale of Community Art Night, visitors can look forward to a curated DJ set by Bremen-based artist .umi., featuring afro-infused sounds to warm up. Also joining is the clothes swap pop-up by the initiative climate friendly Bremen. Alongside swapping and trying on clothing, participants can work with fabric remnants at hands-on stations and experiment with art cycling.

Clothing guidelines for the swap:
– Clean, washed, and without holes
– No underwear, shoes, or socks (unless new and unworn)
– Bring a maximum of three to five items—take as many as you like

The exhibition Cold as Ice. Coldness in Art and Society will be open until 6 pm, offering short multilingual tours and dialogical conversations in Arabic, German, English, Italian, Kurdish, and Turkish.
From 6–7:30 pm, an inclusive tour will take place in the exhibition, specifically tailored to the needs of visually impaired and blind visitors. Meeting point at 5:45 pm outside the museum entrance. Please register by Sunday, 1 March 2026 at info@weserburg.de.

Part of the exhibition Cold as Ice. Coldness in Art and Society.

Made possible by Die Sparkasse Bremen and funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.

Following the opening of Community Art Night, the clothes swap pop-up by climate friendly Bremen will be open to all from 11 am–6 pm. From 4–6 pm, a DJ set by Bremen-based artist .umi. will kick off the weekend.

Clothing guidelines for the swap:
– Clean, washed, and without holes
– No underwear, shoes, or socks (unless new and unworn)
– Bring a maximum of three to five items—take as many as you like

Part of the exhibition Cold as Ice. Coldness in Art and Society.

Made possible by Die Sparkasse Bremen and funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.

Fig.: .umi., photo: Johanna Stolzenberger

In 1983, on a cold winter day in New York, U.S. artist David Hammons set up an improvised street stand, carefully arranging snowballs of different sizes on a blanket and offering them for sale. This seemingly absurd offering of a fleeting, valueless material within everyday urban life became, under the title Bliz-aard Ball Sale, one of the most striking performances of American conceptual art.

Hammons, part of the Black Arts Movement in the 1970s and 1980s, used public space as a stage and the art market as a mirror of social power relations. The sale of snowballs became a subtle parody of economic and cultural value production: Who determines what is “valuable”? What happens when a Black artist acts within a context in which Black men are often marginalized or criminalized? Hammons’ ironic gesture exposes institutional racism reflected in the relationships between producers, buyers, and viewers.

The film The Melt Goes On Forever (2023) by Judd Tully and Harold Crooks traces the career of African American artist David Hammons—from the 1960s to his current international significance.

The film will be shown in English with English subtitles (1 hr 41 min). The subsequent conversation between artist Anys Reimann and writer and curator Eric Otieno Sumba will last approximately 50 minutes and will be held in German.

Part of the exhibition Cold as Ice. Coldness in Art and Society.
In cooperation with Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen.

Fig.: Film poster The Melt Goes On Forever (2023)

A sealskin collar adorns the judicial robe of Aaju Peter. The lawyer has dedicated her life to fighting for the rights of Indigenous peoples of the Arctic. At the age of eleven, she was taken from her home in Greenland to Denmark, far from her family. There she attended school and lost her language and culture. To this day, the Danish language causes her discomfort. As an adult, she settled in Canada, where she experienced further colonization of the Inuit. After the sudden death of her son, Aaju Peter embarks on a painful journey into her past, revisiting childhood places and meeting other Indigenous communities. She begins writing a book about her life and advocates for a permanent Indigenous forum within the EU.

In her 2023 documentary, Lin Alluna offers an intimate portrayal of her protagonist, allowing the audience to enter her emotional and intellectual world and witness her struggle with trauma and her fight for a self-determined future for her children and grandchildren.

2023, CAN/DEN, 91 min, English, rated 18+, film in original version with English subtitles.
Awarded the Pix Nordic Documentary Award at Oslo Pix Film Festival. Selected as opening film at the Human Rights Film Festival Zurich 2025.

Part of the exhibition Cold as Ice. Coldness in Art and Society.
In cooperation with Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen.

Fig.: Film poster Twice Colonized

The collection presentation So as We Are features numerous artistic positions that are progressive, resistant, and outspoken in demanding equal rights for women and queer people.

Following a short introduction in the exhibition, participants can design bags, T-shirts, banners, and protest signs in the Project space of the Weserburg, guided by artist Sirma Kekeç, using various print techniques and (feminist) motifs.

Participants are welcome to bring their own garments and bags.

In cooperation with frauenseiten bremen

On International Women’s Day, art educator Karin Puck presents women artists who reflect both on their own roles within the art system and on current social issues. Special focus is given to video works, performances, and photographs by Hannah Wolf, Nezaket Ekici, and Bunny Rogers.

The tour is open to all and tailored to the needs of visually impaired and blind visitors.

Fig.: Visitors in front of Shilpa Gupta, Untitled, 2020–21, Sû Collection © Shilpa Gupta

Poems offer an excellent starting point for engaging with text through illustration. Vivid language, suggestion, and atmospheric condensation challenge participants to develop their own perspectives, translate mental content visually, clarify, interpret, contrast, or ironically inflect existing material.

The study group particularly focuses on exploring the interplay between self-written lyrical texts and participants’ own illustrations. Sometimes the illustration follows the text, sometimes the text follows the illustration, and sometimes both are developed simultaneously in conceptual preliminary considerations.

With its exhibitions and the Centre for Artists’ Publications, the Weserburg offers an inspiring environment and diverse stimuli for writing and illustration exercises.

Detailed course information and registration: info@ankebaer.de

Far more than many realize, we are often constrained by “invisible” normative assumptions—about the “right way” to live (heteronormativity) as well as the “right way” to write.

The four open sessions of Queer Writing – Against the Norm! (29 March, 7 June, 23 August, and 25 October, 1–5 pm each) invite participants to question and subvert these norms through writing and to discover writing as an empowering and resistant form of expression. Participants may contribute to a queer alphabet (“Queer from A to Z”) or pursue other impulses. There will be time for exchange, readings, questions, and support. Inspiration can also be drawn from the Weserburg itself, including works from the collection exhibition So as We Are, from Murat Önen’s Moving Pile under the Blue Sky (2022) to Zoe Leonard’s queer-political manifesto I want a president (1992).

The workshops are led by queer Bremen-based author Jutta Reichelt and are open to all queer persons, regardless of background or writing experience. Participation is possible on one or multiple dates without prior registration.

A cooperation between Literaturhaus Bremen, Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst, Queeraspora e.V., Stadtbibliothek Bremen, and Rat&Tat–Zentrum für queeres Leben.

Fig.: Jutta Reichelt, photo: Dorothea Salzmann-Schimkus

In the 135th concert of Unerhört, a composition for 16 vibrating steel plates and sand translates visually perceptible sound processes into microtonal listening spaces, opening up an individual field of perception and inviting audiences to an extraordinary listening experience.

Bremerhaven-based activist for experimental sound practices Jens Carstensen, together with Christoph Ogiermann and Mattia Bonafini from the Projektgruppe Neue Musik (pgnm Bremen), developed the musical concept for this concert installation at the Unerhört studio.

With a remarkably simple experimental setup—a metal plate, some sand, and a violin bow—the physicist and astronomer Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni produced patterns by bowing the plate and, around 1780, discovered principles and structures of sound images that became known as Chladni figures, establishing him as a pioneer of physical acoustics.

In this concert, the violin bow is replaced: the 16 steel plates are set into vibration and sound using electronic means. This becomes visible on the surface of the sand-covered plates in flowing, dune-like movements that frame the spatial musical composition of the concert.

The concert is not only a journey through nearly 250 years of acoustics. It also reconstructs strategies for “music in space,” as found in contemporary compositions by György Ligeti, Iannis Xenakis, and Alvin Lucier.

Fig.: Music for 16 Steel Plates. Reconstructions II, Photo: Jens Carstensen

Weserburg presents the premiere of the duo ViGu: two internationally renowned virtuosos, Wolfgang Lackerschmid (vibraphone) and Roni Ben-Hur (guitar), performing a varied program of original compositions and standards specially arranged for this duo.

About the participants:
Jazz guitarist Roni Ben-Hur is known for his distinctive tone and improvisational brilliance. His music elegantly combines jazz with Brazilian and other Latin American styles.

Wolfgang Lackerschmid has been internationally recognized since the 1970s, for example through recordings with Chet Baker. His main instrument is the vibraphone, but he also plays marimba, drums, percussion, and piano.

Presented by Dot Time Records

The ticket is valid for the entire jazzahead! CLUBNIGHT. Tickets available in advance via www.ticketmaster.de and at the door.

Fig.: Wolfgang Lackerschmid (left), photo: Christian Hartmann; Roni Ben-Hur (right), photo: Marcela Joya

A novel about fear and ambition, about the violence of the gaze and the power of words.

Was du nie sehen wirst caused a sensation in the Netherlands, with over 100,000 copies sold. With cool precision and a dense, vividly visual language, author Sacha Bronwasser leads readers ever deeper into an abyssal Paris, where the fates of the characters become inextricably intertwined.

1989. Marie abruptly abandons her photography studies and leaves the Dutch provinces to take a position as an au pair in Paris. Amid an unfamiliar language and the shimmering metropolis, she tries to leave behind the devastating betrayal by her role model Flo. Meanwhile, the family she works for descends further into crisis. Decades later, in 2015, after the devastating attack on the Paris music venue Bataclan, Marie finally begins to understand the connections—and why her story with Flo in 1989 was far from over.

Sacha Bronwasser is an author, art historian, and curator. Before publishing her acclaimed debut novel Niets is gelogen in 2019, she worked for twenty years as an independent art critic for De Volkskrant, one of the Netherlands’ leading daily newspapers. From 2016 to 2022, she was editor and host of the art talk show Stampa in Amsterdam. Her second novel Was du nie sehen wirst was published in February 2023 to critical acclaim and was nominated for the LIBRIS Prize. In June 2026, Sacha Bronwasser will receive a fellowship from the Roger Willemsen Foundation at the mare artists’ residence near Hamburg.

Sacha Bronwasser: Was du nie sehen wirst, translated by Lisa Mensing (Arche, 2025)

A cooperation between the Honorary Consul of the Netherlands in Bremen, Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst, and globale° e.V.
With the kind support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Fig.: Sacha Bronwasser, photo: Bert Wisse

With an introduction by the artist Anys Reimann and curator Ingo Clauß, a concert by Sibb, and a DJ set.

About the exhibition:
With Mirrorball, Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst presents the first institutional solo exhibition of Anys Reimann (*1965, Düsseldorf). In her work, the artist explores the tension between identity and body, cultural belonging and representation. She is particularly known for her portraits of Black women: self-confident, multifaceted, and at the same time challenging. Reimann counters Western, colonial perspectives with her own distinctive visual worlds. Her works celebrate hybridity and ambiguity. The exhibition in Bremen offers a comprehensive insight into Reimann’s most recent work.

More information about the exhibition here.

Fig.: Anys Reimann, MOIRA, 2023, Art’Us Collectors’ Collective, courtesy the artist & VAN HORN, Düsseldorf, photo: J. Bendzulla

In this 25th edition of Let’s Talk Music, host and pianist Claudia Janet Birkholz, together with hearing researcher Prof. Kai Siedenburg, explores the fascinating question of how we perceive music—and what happens when this perception is impaired. Alongside discussion and audience interaction, works by György Ligeti, George Crumb, and Frederic Rzewski will be performed on the piano.

Kai Siedenburg conducts research on musical perception at the University of Oldenburg. In conversation with Claudia Janet Birkholz and through musical examples, he will demonstrate how these perceptual processes function—and what happens when they are disrupted. How do people with hearing impairments experience conversations, sounds, or music? Where does hearing loss begin, and which acoustic situations pose particular challenges?

Music consists of far more than rhythm: pitch, timbre, and the spatial blending of multiple voices shape our listening experience. Through sound examples filtered in different ways via loudspeakers, the audience can directly experience how certain forms of hearing impairment might feel.

The evening concludes with a look toward the future: what possibilities do current and emerging technologies offer for experiencing music despite limited hearing? Can hearing aids enhance musical enjoyment? Can musical mixes be adapted to individual hearing profiles? And what role might vibrotactile systems play, making music physically perceptible through vibration?

An evening between concert, science, and listening experiment—about the remarkable journey of sound from ear to brain and new ways of perceiving music.

About the participants:
Kai Siedenburg is a musicologist and hearing researcher. He studied mathematics and musicology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Vienna. He completed his doctorate in music technology at McGill University in Montréal with a dissertation on the perception of musical timbre. In 2016, he joined the University of Oldenburg as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral researcher, where he led the Oldenburg Music Perception & Processing Lab from 2020. From 2023 to 2025, he was Professor of Communication Acoustics at TU Graz. Since 2025, he has been Professor of Systematic Musicology at the University of Oldenburg. His research focuses on music perception among people with diverse hearing profiles.

Claudia Janet Birkholz studied piano in Bremen, where she teaches piano and new music at the University of the Arts. She has performed at numerous festivals and with ensembles. Since 2012 she has chaired realtime – forum neue musik and serves as artistic director of the realtime festival in Bremen. She initiated the format Let’s Talk Music, inviting guests from music and science since 2015.

A cooperation between realtime – forum neue musik e.V. and Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst
With the kind support of Die Sparkasse Bremen

Fig.: Claudia Janet Birkholz, photo: Andreas Caspari

Activity, relaxation, and artistic impulses: a 75-minute yoga class for all interested participants with Gabriele Kroll (certified yoga instructor) at the Hans Otte. Klanghaus. The session concludes with a shared moment of relaxation and refreshments in the Library. Before and after the class, participants are welcome to explore the exhibition and the museum.

Please bring comfortable clothing and a yoga mat. If you do not have your own mat, please indicate this when registering.

Fig.: Yoga at the Hans Otte. Klanghaus, photo: Gabriele Kroll

As part of International Museum Day, visitors enjoy free admission to the Weserburg throughout the day. The program includes short guided tours of the collection exhibition The Way We Are, a collage and comic workshop with Jeff Hollweg, and a screening of Assembly (Rashaad Newsome, 2025). Visitors can also explore the exhibition Mirrorball with a playlist curated by artist Anys Reimann.

Program Weserburg

11 am–3 pm
Afrofuturist comic and collage workshop
With Jeff Hollweg
Part of the exhibition Anys Reimann. Mirrorball
Location: Project space

Together with comic artist and social educator Jeff Hollweg, participants create imaginative figures, worlds, dialogues, and emotions using pen, scissors, and paper. The workshop offers a space for experimentation and creative expression. Using approaches critical of discrimination, image fragments and archives are reassembled and retold, inspired by the collages and works of Anys Reimann. Children under ten should attend with an accompanying adult.

11:30 am and 12 pm
Short guided tours of The Way We Are
With Karin Puck
Meeting point: Project space

3–4:45 pm
Screening of the documentary Assembly (2025)
In English
Part of the exhibition Anys Reimann. Mirrorball
Location: Hans Otte. Klanghaus

A Bremen premiere: the screening of Assembly (2025) by U.S. artist Rashaad Newsome, addressing artificial intelligence, colonial power structures, and the complexity and resilience of queer Black experiences.

Screenplay, direction, and production: Rashaad Newsome and Johnny Symons
Further information: https://assemblythefilm.com/

In cooperation with the research training group “Contradiction Studies” at the University of Bremen

The success of fascist movements and parties cannot be explained solely by fear and anger. Equally decisive are the pleasure and desire associated with violence and aggression. Racism becomes particularly intense when it is erotically charged—for example, when migration is framed as a sexual threat to German women. Alongside this “sexy racism,” historian Dagmar Herzog (New York) identifies an obsessive hostility toward people with disabilities as a fundamental element of the AfD program, echoing Nazi ideology.

In her book Der neue faschistische Körper (Wirklichkeit Books), Herzog attempts to think these two phenomena together: libidinal intensification in fascism and hostility toward bodies perceived as imperfect. Only by studying the emotional worlds and debates of past fascisms can we understand and confront their contemporary forms.

Referring to Zoe Leonard’s work I Want a President (1992), shown at the Weserburg, Herzog will also address current developments in U.S. politics and society. The lecture will be followed by a discussion with political scientist Martin Nonhoff (Worlds of Contradiction (WOC) & Profs gegen Rechts, University of Bremen).

Part of the exhibition So as We Are

About the participant:
Dagmar Herzog is Professor of History at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and WOC International Guest Professor at the University of Bremen in 2026. She completed her PhD at Brown University in 1991 with a dissertation on religious politics in pre-revolutionary Baden (1830s–1940s). She taught at Michigan State University from 1991 to 2005 before joining the Graduate Center, CUNY, where she has been Distinguished Professor of History and Daniel Rose Faculty Scholar since 2012. Her research focuses on the history of sexuality, religion, and the Holocaust, with particular attention to fascist body politics, eugenics, and societal attitudes toward people with disabilities in Germany and the United States.

An event by Worlds of Contradiction (WOC) and Profs gegen Rechts at the University of Bremen in cooperation with Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst and Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen

Fig.: Dagmar Herzog © Jürgen Bauer

Creative workshops, ping pong and beats, behind-the-scenes insights, and short guided tours—the Weserburg presents a dynamic and diverse program for all ages during the Lange Nacht der Museen.

In addition to the many activities, all exhibitions will be open to visitors.

Program Weserburg

6–11 pm
(Re-)mixing with collage, frottage, and drawing
Hands-on workshop with artist Sirma Kekeç. Try out different techniques, create your own artwork, and take it home. No prior experience required.

6 pm–12 am
Ping pong and beats
The Weserburg invites visitors to play round robin, ping pong, or one-on-one matches on the new table tennis table in the Hans Otte. Klanghaus. Accompanied by a special sound experience: a playlist curated by artist Anys Reimann provides energetic beats and rhythm.

6–9:30 pm (hourly)
Short guided tours of the current exhibitions with curators and art educators

7 pm
BIKE IT! Stage – Through the Night with Lucky Mirlo on the velo stage
Bremen’s mobile bicycle stage travels through the Long Night of Museums, bringing music to the forecourts of exhibition venues. At the Weserburg, the Städtische Galerie, and the Kunsthalle Bremen, Lucky Mirlo performs energetic alt-rock, funk, and hip-hop.

7:30 pm
Inclusive tour of The Way We Are
With art educator Karin Puck
Open to all, particularly tailored to the needs of blind and visually impaired visitors and their companions

8 pm
Behind the scenes of the Centre for Artists’ Publications
From artist books and vinyl records to stamps—the Weserburg holds a unique collection of artists’ publications in Europe. The Centre for Artists’ Publications functions as archive, research institute, and exhibition space. Discover this unique place and gain exclusive insights from the team.

Prices and further information: www.langenachtbremen.de

Moderation: Maimuna Sallah

Part of the exhibition Anys Reimann. Mirrorball

James Baldwin (1924–1987) is one of the most important writers of the 20th century. During his lifetime, books such as Giovanni’s Room and The Fire Next Time made him famous and brought him onto the cover of Time Magazine. But Baldwin was Black and gay, and the society in which he lived was racist and homophobic. From this tension emerged a unique body of work that opened wide the doors through which generations of activists after him would pass.

About the author:

René Aguigah is a cultural journalist and heads the Literature, Philosophy, and Religion department at Deutschlandfunk Kultur. In his elegantly written portrait James Baldwin. Der Zeuge (C.H.Beck), Baldwin expert Aguigah traces Baldwin’s life from his origins in poverty in Harlem to his escape from everyday racism to Paris, his rapid rise as a sought-after speaker, and his relationships with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Above all, Aguigah’s essayistic book asks what Baldwin still has to tell us today. It explores the relationship between art and activism, the tension between literature and politics, his commitment to minorities, and his universalist convictions. Baldwin, who knew hatred so well, held on to love as hope in his novels and essays. Aguigah portrays him as a witness—to a time of violence and injustice that continues to exist today.

About the moderator:

Maimuna Sallah is a transnational literary scholar (M.A.) with a particular focus on diverse and multilingual reading promotion. Her interests and work focus on discrimination-critical and literature-based educational work with children and young people. Since January 2023 she has co-directed the Black Children’s Library Bremen and works to create greater access to and visibility for diverse, empowering children’s and young adult literature.

“You gave me a language to dwell in.” Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize winner in Literature, on James Baldwin

Tickets available in advance via www.nordwest-ticket.de

Fig.: René Aguigah, photo: Carolin Goergen

The Weserburg, GAK Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, and Künstler:innenhaus Bremen open their doors for a summer evening with art, music, and hands-on activities. In addition to a fashion show, a performance, and a DJ set, there will be a live concert on the forecourt of the Weserburg.

The evening begins at 6 pm on the forecourt of the Weserburg with a plant swap by KlimaWerkStadt and the hands-on station Make it Mirrorball. DIY Disco Balls with Glamour Factor (until 8 pm). Music will be provided by DJ yung_womb with a mix of 1970s and 1980s jazz, contemporary jazz, funk, vintage salsa, and Caribbean music.

At the same time, the Weserburg invites visitors to a Silent Disco in the exhibition Anys Reimann. Mirrorball. Surrounded by the works, visitors can listen via headphones to a playlist compiled by the artist (until 9 pm).

At Künstler:innenhaus Bremen, the performance Melissa by Renen Oh takes place at 7:30 pm. The artist works across video, performance, sound, and text. Starting from dance, Renen has developed a visual art practice that brings the language and logic of the stage into spatial installations. These works focus on how material interacts with theatricality, language, duration, and audience.

At 8:30 pm, GAK Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst presents Umhaut in the museum tunnel—a “fashion show” featuring tight, wide, open, closed, and layered enclosures. It was preceded by a workshop with fashion designers Harm Cordes and Luisa Recker.

The evening concludes musically at 9 pm with a live concert by ÄLICE on the forecourt of the Weserburg. The Hamburg-based musician is known for her energetic mix of reggae, R&B, dancehall, and hip-hop, as well as her clear stance against sexism and homophobia.

And for small or large appetites: snacks, drinks, and ice cream will be available.

Part of the exhibition Anys Reimann. Mirrorball

The new novel So, in etwa, ist es geschehen (S. Fischer Verlage, 2026) by Bachmann Prize winner Sharon Dodua Otoo: Amata Haller and her boss Heinz Brockhaus are on their way to Timmendorfer Strand; he has offered to drive her there. Amata is in a hurry. Her mother is waiting, as she does every year on 3 May. This date marks the anniversary of the sinking of the Cap Arcona, the catastrophe near the end of the Second World War that her grandfather only narrowly survived. The heat weighs heavily on the overcrowded roads, the journey grows longer and longer, Brockhaus talks nonstop, and Amata loses her composure. By the end of the day, Brockhaus will be dead, and months later Amata will stand trial.

In an accompanying seminar to the exhibition Anys Reimann. Mirrorball, students of the Master’s program in Transnational Literary Studies at the University of Bremen, together with Johanne Mohs, explore the exhibition’s themes from a literary perspective and will moderate the discussion at the event.

An event by Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst together with the University of Bremen, Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen, and globale e.V.

Tickets available in advance via www.nordwest-ticket.de

Fig.: Sharon Dodua Otoo, photo: Francis Oghuma

As part of the exhibition The Way We Are

About the holiday program:

How can art be made accessible to everyone? In the project Sustainable Futures: Art, Inclusion, and Disability, children and young people with and without disabilities work closely with artists to explore the Weserburg’s collection exhibition The Way We Are.

Over five days, participants will develop creative analog and digital formats that expand access to the exhibition and break down barriers. The project focuses on two main areas: creating miniature and tactile models, dioramas, and material prints, as well as works with surface textures such as relief, softcut, linocut, and frottage; and producing audio descriptions and listening stations that focus on descriptions of the space and the artworks.

The project combines art, inclusion, and innovative forms of art communication. Together, participants create sustainable ideas and products that make art accessible to a diverse audience and open up new perspectives on the exhibition.

The project Sustainable Futures is a collaboration between the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art, Yekmal e.V., and KlimaWerkStadt, funded by the Museumsbund as part of the program Museum macht stark.

Activity, relaxation, and artistic impulses: a 75-minute yoga class for all interested participants with Gabriele Kroll (certified yoga instructor) at the Hans Otte. Klanghaus. The session concludes with a shared moment of relaxation and refreshments in the Library. Before and after the class, participants are welcome to explore the exhibition and the museum.

Please bring comfortable clothing and a yoga mat. If you do not have your own mat, please indicate this when registering.

Fig.: Yoga at the Hans Otte. Klanghaus, photo: Gabriele Kroll

Far more often than we realize, our lives are shaped and constrained by “invisible” normative ideas. This applies both to what is considered the “right way to live” (heteronormativity) and to what is considered the “right way to write.”

The four open sessions of Queer Writing – Against the Norm! (29 March, 7 June, 23 August, and 25 October, 1–5 pm) invite participants to question and challenge these norms and conventions through writing, discovering writing as a form of self-empowerment and resistance. Participants may contribute to a collective queer alphabet (Queer A–Z) or pursue other ideas and impulses through writing, including their own. Alongside and after the writing sessions, there will be opportunities for exchange, readings, questions, and mutual support. Participants are also encouraged to draw inspiration from the Weserburg itself, including works from the collection exhibition So as We Are, ranging from Murat Önen’s Moving Pile under the Blue Sky (2022) to Zoe Leonard’s queer-political manifesto I Want a President (1992).

The four open workshop sessions are led by Bremen-based queer author Jutta Reichelt (www.juttareichelt.com) and are open to all queer people, regardless of background or writing experience. Anyone interested in writing and exchanging ideas in a group setting is warmly welcome. Participation in one or multiple sessions is possible without prior registration.

About the participant:

Jutta Reichelt (*1967) lives in Bremen, where she works as a writer and facilitator of storytelling. She writes novels, short stories, and literary essays, publishes the blog Über das Schreiben von Geschichten (On Writing Stories), and leads writing workshops. Her work has received numerous awards. In 2001, she was awarded the Würth Prize of the Tübingen Poetics Lectureship, for which Herta Müller delivered the laudatory speech. Her novel Wiederholte Verdächtigungen was published by Klöpfer & Meyer (Tübingen) in 2015, followed by the literary portrait volume Blaumeier oder der Möglichkeitssinn (Bremen) in 2020. In 2020, she received the Bremen Senator for Culture’s Literary Project Grant for her work on Mein Leben war nicht, wie es war, which was published by Kröner Verlag in 2024.

A cooperation between Literaturhaus Bremen, Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst, Queeraspora e.V., Stadtbibliothek Bremen, and Rat&Tat – Zentrum für queeres Leben.

Fig.: Jutta Reichelt, photo: Dorothea Salzmann-Schimkus

The documentary The Tree of Authenticity (2025) by Congolese filmmaker, photographer, and video artist Sammy Baloji explores the relationship between colonialism and the climate crisis through the perspective of the Tree of Authenticity. Starting from the remains of a former tropical agriculture research center in Yangambi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Baloji investigates the connections between colonial exploitation, scientific research, and today’s climate crisis.

Belgium, DR Congo, 2025 – Director: Sammy Baloji – Original languages: French, Dutch – English subtitles – 89 min.

As part of the exhibition Mirrorball by artist Anys Reimann, Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst presents ARCHIPELAGO (2026), a work from her ongoing series Black Gardens, which the artist has been developing since 2019 in various forms, both indoors and in outdoor garden settings. ARCHIPELAGO refers to the movement of goods, plants, and people, intertwined with the complex history of coloniality.

Drawing on Édouard Glissant’s concept of the archipelago, the islands do not appear as isolated entities but as bodies in exchange, as networks of relationships. In this sense, the work also invites viewers to develop new connections and narratives.

The Tree of Authenticity encourages reflection on the enduring entanglements of colonialism, the environment, and global responsibility.

Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst in cooperation with the research training group Contradiction Studies at the University of Bremen, flux – Café. Bar. Begegnungen, Afrikanetzwerk Bremen, KlimaWerkStadt Bremen, and Lucie Garten.

Fig.: View of the exhibition Anys Reimann. Mirrorball. In the foreground: ARCHIPELAGO, 2026, courtesy the artist & VAN HORN, Düsseldorf, photo: Tobias Hübel

Introductory talk: Sabine Hänsgen, curator of the exhibition, with publisher Wolfgang Mohrhenn. Followed by a performance of the composition Über-Schneidungen (Mattia Bonafini): sound samples from the Edition S Press archive.

About the exhibition:

From 1970 to 2005, Edition S Press was a publishing house specializing in experimental literature, Concrete Poetry, Beat Poetry, and poetry performance. Using reel-to-reel tapes, audio cassettes, video cassettes, and media packages, it developed new forms of publishing acoustic art. Over 80 editions bring together works by artists from Europe, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Many of these artworks were created during the Cold War and demonstrate how poetry and sound art became forms of expression for resistance and artistic freedom.

More information on the exhibition here.

Exhibition period: 12 September 2026 – 29 August 2027

Fig.: S PRESS Tape No. 70, Michael Brownstein – Monkey Blues, 1979, S PRESS TONBANDVERLAG, photo: Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst

Koffi is possessed. At least, that is what his family believes, which is why they call him Zabolo, a sign of the devil. After being ostracized for years, he returns to his birthplace in Congo for the first time in many years. Koffi hopes to receive his family’s blessing for his marriage to Alice, with whom he lives in Belgium. But old hostilities are still palpable, and only his sister Tshala takes a critical view of the collective superstition. Koffi wants to understand the reasons why he was cast out and, in doing so, uncovers a family secret. And then there is Paco, a boy from a street gang whose fate seems to be connected to Koffi’s life …

In his feature film debut, musician, filmmaker, and multidisciplinary artist Baloji explores in a compelling way how profoundly belief shapes the fate of his four main characters. OMEN is a visually powerful film incorporating elements of surrealism and magical realism—an impressive testament to the creative energy of contemporary African cinema.

About the artist:
Baloji was born in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, in 1978 and is now based in Belgium. He is an award-winning musician, filmmaker, and multidisciplinary artist who also works as an art director and costume designer for fashion and other forms of visual art.

Original version (English/French/Lingala/Swahili) with German subtitles
Belgium/Germany/France/Netherlands/South Africa/Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2023
92 minutes, rated 12 and older, directed and written by Baloji

As part of the exhibition Anys Reimann. Mirrorball.
In cooperation with the Research Training Group “Contradiction Studies” at the University of Bremen and CITY 46.

Fig.: OMEN (2023), film still © Grandfilm, Wrong Men

This workshop is for anyone who would like to try both writing and drawing. Everyone who enjoys experimenting and creating together is warmly invited to join. No previous experience is required!

Participants can also draw inspiration from the Weserburg itself—including works in the collection exhibition So wie wir sind: from Murat Önen’s Moving Pile under the Blue Sky (2022) to Zoe Leonard’s queer political manifesto I want a president (1992).

About:

Lee Doubleu draws, paints, and writes in Bremen. As a volunteer, Lee co-organizes a monthly drawing meetup. Lee’s own artistic practice currently focuses on sketches, illustrations, and watercolors. Most recently, the short story Der Hobby-Friedhof was published in an anthology by the Austrian publishing house ohneohren.

Jutta Reichelt lives and works in Bremen as a writer and initiator of stories. She writes novels, short stories, and literary essays, blogs about writing stories, and leads writing workshops. Her writing has received several awards.

A cooperation between Literaturhaus Bremen and Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst.

Fig: Jutta Reichelt © Dorothea Salzmann-Schimkus and Lee Doubleu © Lee Doubleu

Program:

4–8 pm: Afrofuturist Zines & Collage with Jeff Hollweg and DJ set by Bremen-based DJ .Umi.

Together with comic artist and social educator Jeff Hollweg, participants will use pens, scissors, and paper in the Project space to create fantastic characters, new worlds, and stories. Image fragments and archives will be reassembled and reimagined from a perspective that critically engages with discrimination. A reading corner featuring a selection of children’s books and graphic novels invites visitors to discover bold visions of the future and question familiar ideas about society. Accompanied by DJ sets from DJ .Umi:.

4:15–4:45 pm: Reading with Fikri Anıl Altıntaş about James Baldwin from 30 Real Boys – mutig, gefühlvoll und ganz sie selbst

In the Library, Fikri Anıl Altıntaş reads from his newly published children’s nonfiction book 30 Real Boys – mutig, gefühlvoll und ganz sie selbst (Hanser, 2026) for visitors of all ages. The book encourages boys to show their feelings and stand up for others. Real Boys portrays thirty empathetic men who support others, take on care work as a matter of course, support women and queer people, or advocate for the rights of groups affected by discrimination.

5–5:30 pm: German-French guided tour of the exhibition Anys Reimann. Mirrorball

About Community Art Night:
Once a month, the Project space at the Weserburg becomes an open workshop for creating, exchanging ideas, and experimenting together. On Thursdays from 4 to 8 pm, it becomes a space for people to meet and connect. No previous experience is required. Between 4 and 6 pm, visitors can also explore the current exhibitions. Short tours and conversations with people from Bremen’s urban community and the museum offer different perspectives on selected works and the themes of the exhibitions.

Fig.: Zines & Collage at Community Art Night, photo: Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst

Conversation with Tania Arcimovich, Fariba Vafi, Karima Shabrang, and Svenja Leiber
Moderated by Maha El Hissy
Translation (Persian–German): Jutta Himmelreich

Following the successful first event as part of the heimaten Festival last year, globale°, in cooperation with Weiter Schreiben, once again brings together perspectives of authors who, particularly in the current climate, are receiving less and less space in public discourse and risk being lost amid a tangle of crises and funding cuts. The event focuses on writing in exile and between languages, the production of literature in Germany today, and the position of marginalized voices within it.

At the 2026 heimaten Festival event, women authors from Belarus, Afghanistan, and Iran come together to discuss their experiences in the present moment.

A cooperation between Haus der Kulturen der Welt, globale° – Festival für grenzüberschreitende Literatur e.V., Weiter Schreiben, and Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst.