FIRE. From the Cosmos to the Commons
City Curator`s Public Art Exhibition at the St. Nikolai Memorial
Performative tours through the exhibition FIRE. From the Cosmos to the Commons at the St. Nikolai Memorial with City Curator Hamburg and guests.
Public Art exhibition FIRE. From the Cosmos to the Commons in collaboration with the St. Nikolai Memorial is dedicated to the element of Fire, the apocalypse and the repair. During the festival, City Curator Hamburg and guests host weekly guided tours and conversations at the exhibition. FIRE presents a series of public art commissions of both Hamburg-based as well as the international artists, dealing with the political, ecological, and spiritual reading of fire in the times of political urgency. It addresses the current pervasive feeling of impending catastrophe, asking how to turn poison into medicine, confusion into strength, loss into renewal and resilience.
The exhibition takes place at the St. Nikolai Memorial; a former church located in the heart of Hamburg and destroyed by flames two times in its history. Never rebuilt after World War II, it is now a place of remembrance and encounter, offering a space to learn about what causes wars. Each day, it welcomes thousands of visitors, linking the memory of destruction and the irreparable damage with hope and the collective will to mend. In that context the contemporary works of Public Art, presented in the most democratic, accessible and complex manner, ask how to find a way out from the vicious cycle of destruction and renewal towards a non-violent planetary co-existence.
FIRE exhibition is part of the series From the Cosmos to the Commons by the City Curator Hamburg centering five core elements – Cosmos (2025), Fire (2026), Air (2027), Earth (2028), and Water (2029). It dedicates each year to one specific element around the idea of the planetary public sphere. The project City Curator Hamburg is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Media Hamburg and is hosted by Kunsthaus Hamburg.
FIRE. From the Cosmos to the Commons at the St. Nikolai Memorial
Curated by Joanna Warsza, City Curator Hamburg
Exhibition: 21.6. – 21.9.2026
Program
8. August
14.00 Cycle of Warmth, performative reading by the artist Lene Markusen and a walk through the exhibition with Nasim Weiler (EN/DE)
15. August
14.00 The Element of Fire. A walk through the exhibition with the City Curator Joanna Warsza (EN)
22. August
14.00 On Apocalypse. A response to the exhibition by the artist and writer Moshtari Hilal (EN)
